Gender Bendered
by Kaching12
Summary: If most of the cast of Inuyasha had been born the opposite gender from the original , how would the story have differed? Comedy, action, a touch of romance. It helps if you've read the manga. Rated for mild violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1: The Boy Who Overcame Time And The Girl Who Was Just Overcome

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" a voice called out, startling the quiet of the morning. A young girl, dressed all in red, sprung up from the village shrine, clutching something on her hand.

Down below, the villagers were filled with terror. Although it was true that they could never fully trust the girl, they had come to uneasy terms with her. But her sudden outburst of destruction proved they had been right all along about her. And they were terrified, because the girl had the powers of a demon, and she was clearly very unhappy.

"You villagers will only get what you deserve!" the girl cried out, leaping and destroying buildings on her way to the forest. "Now that I have the Shikon Jewel, I'll be unstoppable!" she shouted gleefully.

She finally entered the forest, about to escape to the wilderness with her prize, when a shinto priest of about 18 years approached. It was all over in less than a minute. He skillfully shot an arrow at the girl, hitting her right in the heart, and sealing her to the tree she was standing next to.

"W...why, you..." she managed to gasp out. She dropped the item, which fell to the ground and rolled a few inches away. Then her head fell onto her chest, and she was finished.

The priest stepped forward and picked up what the girl had dropped. "The jewel... for such a thing..."

A small group of villagers came running over. The priest dropped to the ground. It didn't take much to tell that he was severely injured. His shoulder was bleeding profusely, and there was a long trail of blood in the direction he had come.

"Brother, are you okay?" a little girl with a bandage over one eye asked the priest urgently.

"I... don't have much time..." he panted. "Here. Take this and burn it with my remains," he said, thrusting the jewel at the little girl.

"Br-brother?"

"You must do as I say!" he exclaimed, once again thrusting the jewel at his sister. He suddenly clutched his shoulder and then fell to the side.

"Brother? Brother?!"

Later that day, he was cremated, holding that mysterious object, the "Shikon Jewel" in his hands. He died having two wishes: that this powerful object would never fall into the hands of evil, and to be reunited with his love in the afterlife.

Unfortunately, neither of those wishes would come true for a very long time.

"Shikon Jewel, Grandpa? What would I care about some hokey old jewel, anyway?"

"It is a very important part of our shrine's history, boy!" the old man exclaimed.

"It's just a keychain with a marble on it," the boy said, unimpressed.

"Well, of course, these are just replicas. The real jewel vanished without a trace nearly 500 years ago," the man said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, whatever." The boy suddenly remembered something. "Hey, Gramps, you know my birthday's tomorrow, right?" he asked eagerly.

"Yes, of course. I have your present right here!"

'Right here?' the boy thought. If his grandfather had his present in the storage room, it couldn't be anything good.

And it wasn't. "Here you are!" the grandfather said, pulling out some... thing. It was dark green, and clearly very old. With webbed toes and claws... well, it was definitely not something a teenager wants to get for his birthday. "It's the mummified hand of a kappa water sprite!" Grandpa was obviously very pleased with himself.

"I think Buyo will like this a lot," the boy said, giving the thing to the cat.

"What?! Don't do that! Do you know how much that cost me?"

'And I thought after last year's mermaid skeleton he would've learned his lesson,' the boy sighed inwardly.

His name was Souta Higurashi. He was the oldest child of his family, followed only by his 8 year old sister Kagome. He lived on the Higurashi shrine with his sister, his mother, and his grandfather. "Gramps", as he called him, was his father's father. Mr. Higurashi, Souta's and Kagome's father, had died in a car accident when Kagome was just a toddler.

Gramps was the shrine's priest, and was always trying to peddle fake little trinkets and weird "artifacts" to visitors. It was always annoying to Souta, but it and the donations were the family's only source of income, so he always supposed he could just let it slide.

And as he woke up on the morning of his 15th birthday, he had no idea how much his life would change, or how soon.

He was about to leave for school when he saw his little sister looking worriedly into the little shrine. This piqued Souta's curiosity, because the two were forbidden to go into the shrine. All they knew about it was that there was a dry well inside, and that there were "scary rumors" about it. Souta had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but he kept thinking of "Ringu" and wanted nothing to do with wells anyway. But he decided to see what his sister was up to.

"What's up?" he asked, startling Kagome.

"Oh, it's the cat. I think 'e went in here, and I don't want him to get hurt," she replied.

"So, why don't you go in there after her?" he said, completely unconcerned.

"Because it's dark in there, and I don't want to get eaten by a monster or anything!"

Souta sighed. "Isn't that just like a little girl, scared of the dark. Alright, I'll go get Buyo." Even though Souta had reprimanded his sister for being scared, he was shaking on the inside. It was dark in there. And dirty, and smelly, and mysterious.

As he walked down the stairs to the the well in the center, a soft rattling started up.

"What's that sound?!" Kagome asked from the doorway.

"Gee, I dunno, maybe... the cat?" Souta said sarcastically. He suddenly felt something on his leg, and his heart jumped a mile. "Wha-?" He looked down, and saw it was only Buyo. Relieved, he said, "See? Here's the cat now!"

But the rattling continued. And as it got louder, both Souta and Kagome realized it was coming from the covered well. In fact, it looked like the cover itself was what was rattling.

"B...bro?" Kagome asked nervously.

Suddenly the cover shot off, and a creature most foul sprung up from the well. "Jewel... you have... the jewel..." it cackled. Then it grabbed onto Souta with its many arms and pulled him down into the well, leaving only an uninterested Buyo and an extremely scared Kagome.

In the well, which seemed too long, too light, and too blue to possibly be the same well he just fell in, Souta got a good look at his kidnapper. It was a freakish creature, with the face and torso of a woman - except for the extra arms - but with the extremely long lower half of some sort of insect.

"The jewel! Give it!" the creature yelled, licking Souta's face.

Souta nearly vomited. "What jewel? What the hell are you talking about? Let go!" he yelled back, about to punch the thing. And then it exploded.

A weird, pinkish light emanated from Souta's hand, and the strange creature broke into several pieces. Then Souta and the pieces of the thing finally hit the bottom of the well.

"Ouch, that smarts!" Souta said, standing and rubbing his bottom. "Hey, Kagome! Get mom for me, will ya!" he yelled up. This was followed by no response, but he did scare a butterfly away. It took a few seconds to register the presence of a butterfly in what he had assumed was an old, enclosed structure. 'Maybe there's an opening somewhere?' he thought. But doubt began to creep further in when he noticed all the vines growing in the well, and how light it seemed to be inside. He took a good look up, and saw... the sky?! "What...? I must've... hit my head or something?" he tried to reassure himself, but he really didn't believe that. With one last look at the pieces of the creature, he grabbed hold of a vine and climbed out of the well. And then he really began to wonder what was going on.

His home, the shrine, was completely paved in concrete, except where the storage rooms, the house, and the well shrine were, in addition to the God Tree, or the Tree of Ages. The Tree was the only piece of plant life in the shrine. So Souta was understandably confused when he saw the place where he had grown up was completely green. All around the open well - which was uncovered and not in any building whatsoever - was wild, untamed grass. A few meters to either side were trees. Lots of trees.

"Where... am I?" he wondered, looking around. Then he spotted something very familiar. "The Tree! When I was younger I could always find my way home when I spotted it! Our shrine must still be nearby!" he gasped as he ran towards the tree. Although it was pretty obvious he wasn't still "home", he ran away. Because when you're under extreme stress, logic tends to escape.

And when he got to the Tree, in the midst of a forest that had surely not been there 10 minutes ago, he stopped in his tracks. The Tree was covered in vines, and was a little smaller than he had remembered, but that wasn't the strangest part. There was a girl on the tree. All Souta could see was that she had white hair, was dressed in red, and was clearly sleeping, and she was wrapped in long, thick vines. This puzzled Souta - didn't that mean she had been there for a long time? He decided to take a chance and maybe ask for her help.

"Excuse me, miss?" he called, walking towards her. "Miss?" He finally got right up to her, and saw that, in addition to her soft, white hair, she had two things on top of her head that looked suspiciously like... "Cat ears? No, maybe dog ears?" Then he couldn't resist his urge to feel them, to see if they were real. The girl did not stir. Had Souta been paying more attention, he would've noticed that the girl was clearly not asleep, as she wasn't breathing at all, and he would've noticed the arrow that pierced her heart. Had he been paying any attention at all, he might also have heard the large group of people approaching.

But he didn't notice, at least not until they started firing arrows at him.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

But he didn't notice, at least not until they started firing arrows at him.

Luckily, none of the arrows hit him, or even the strange girl. But still, Souta was pretty freaked out. Then the villagers all started shouting various things, mostly along the lines of "You there, what are you doing, trespassing?"

"What? Trespassing? Hey, listen-!" Souta called, still facing the tree.

The crowd quickly surrounded Souta, pulling him off and binding his hands. Then they dragged him off to the village, where he was met with stares from all the other village people. "It must be a kitsune demon in disguise," a lady said, amongst other general and similar comments.

Suddenly the crowd quieted down as someone said, "It's Lady Kaede!"

"Hm?" Souta turned to see who he was expecting to be an attractive young lady. Instead, his eyes met... Kaede. An old, hunched down woman with an eyepatch. It was clear from outfit that she was a priestess. This somewhat startled Souta, as he had always seen shinto priestesses who were 25 at the oldest, when usually it was the priests who were really old, like his grandfather.

"You must think you're a clever one, boy. Taking on the form of my long deceased elder brother," the priestess said.

"What?" Souta asked. "Look, I didn't take on anybody's 'form', lady! I was born lookin' like this!"

"Do you think he's a spy from another village?" one man asked.

"Just look at those peculiar clothes. He can't be any normal person," another said.

"What the hell are you all talkin' about? You're the ones dressed like it's the... it's the..." 'middle ages?' he finished in his head. 'No... it couldn't possibly be...' But as he looked around at the way everyone was dressed and had their hair, looked at the small, makeshift houses, and considered that he clearly was not in the exact home he had been in earlier that day, the possibility of time travel began to make more and more sense.

"Do you really not know?" the priestess asked.

"Um...?" Souta responded intelligently.

What could only have been a few minutes later yet was inexplicably clearly the evening, um, later, the priestess, who Souta preferred to call Kaede, because he had always thought that priestesses were hot, like Sakura or Rei, explained some things to Souta.

"You see, about 50 years ago, my elder brother died in order to save the rest of us from ultimate evil. It just so happens that you look almost identical to him."

"Well, like I said, I didn't 'take on his form' or use my non-existant kitsune powers to look like him or anything. I was born this way. Um, by the way..." he had a small hope, "...could you tell me if the Higurashi Shrine is anywhere nearby?" He was meant with a blank stare. "Higurashi Shrine? Tokyo?"

"Tokyo? Are you sure you don't mean Kyoto?"

"Er..."

"I know not of any 'Higurashi' shrine, either. Our shrine here has no name, and I've never heard the word 'higurashi' used for anything."

"Oh," Souta said, disappointed. "Of course not." 'Duh, you idiot,' he thought to himself. 'Why would she know of it?' "So I guess I really am in the Warring States Era," he thought outloud.

"Warring States? I suppose that is a good way to describe our land's current condition," the priestess chuckled darkly.

"Yeah... So, what was this 'ultimate evil'-" Souta was suddenly cut off by shouting outside. He and the priestess - er, Kaede - ran out to see what the commotion was about. And then Souta spotted someone, no, something he had never expected to see again.

It was the thing that pulled him into the well, but it was somehow reassembled. And it was destroying buildings and eating livestock. "Jewel!" it shouted. "I must have the jewel!"

"Our spears and arrows aren't enough to stop it!" a villager called to Kaede.

"Ay. Boy," she said, turning to Souta, "you must flee here until we have taken care of this beast. Go to Inuyasha's forest..." she pointed towards the forest that Souta had been in earlier.

"The glowing one? Right!" he took off running.

"How could he have seen the forest's glow... that no earthly being can see? Just what is this child?" the mystified priestess asked no one in particular.

Unfortunately, the centipede-lady-thing was after Souta, and as soon as she/it noticed he was heading towards the forest, she stopped her reign of destruction and took off after him.

"Ah, gee! Why does all this crap have to happen to me!? What next??" Souta exclaimed, having noticed what was now trailing him.

Meanwhile, something in the forest pulsed. Eyelids that had been closed for five decades opened slowly. Nostrils that had not taken in air nor scent for half a century sniffed. "It's him!" a girl who had been completely out of commission for fifty years said from her tree, the largest in the forest. "The scent of the one who killed me!"

And our running hero, who had nearly tripped, shouted "Goddammit!"

OoO

Next chapter is longer. And here the differences from the original start revealing themselves. I believe the original's Kagome said something like "I could sure use a rescue" in this part. :)


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Souta finally made it into the forest. Once he got there, the centipede thing still on his tail, he realized that he had no idea what he was supposed to do there. Kaede had told him to run towards the forest, but really, what good would hiding in a forest do him? Especially when the thing he was supposed to be hiding from was right behind him anyway? Then he began to wonder why he was thinking stupid things like this, when he was clearly about to die. Wasn't your life supposed to flash before your eyes when you were gonna die?

As Souta was thinking these things in one side of his brain, while going "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" in the other side, he approached a familiar tree. Perhaps it was a trick of fate that led him to this tree, or maybe some subconscious knowledge deep in the pits of his soul, but there was no way his earthly mind he would have realized he was running towards the tree with the girl on it.

Now, forests such as these are quite often filled with trees. In fact, they're not really forests without trees. And where there are places filled with trees, there are tree roots. And older trees tend to have roots sticking out of the ground. As you may wonder where this is heading, I'll just tell you: Souta tripped over a tree root.

Luckily for him, the centipede thing was quite a ways back, as it had to wind its way around the closely knit trees, or else knock them over - which proved difficult for it, as these trees were fairly sturdy. Perhaps it was not just the mystical aura of the bound girl in the forest that produced a glow no earthly being could see. Indeed, at least one of the trees was quite magical itself.

It wasn't hard to tell that Souta was having trouble with the creature that was chasing him. "Why toy with second-raters like Mistress Centipede?" a voice came out of nowhere. Souta, currently flat on his face on the grassy ground, was understandably confused, and looked up, towards where the voice had come from.

And he was understandably surprised when he saw the girl, previously unconscious, awake. "Wha-..." Souta was too frazzled to form a complete thought, let alone ask a complete sentence.

"Just do her in like you did me, Tsuta," the girl said.

"What? Tsuta?" Souta said, standing up. "Listen here, missy, my name's not 'Tsuta' or whatever, it's-"

"She's coming," the girl, still bound in vines, arrow still piercing her heart said.

Just at that moment, Mistress Centipede crashed into the scene. Predictably, it - she, rather - said, "Jewel! I must have the sacred jewel!"

"Look, thing, I haven't got your stupid jewel! Why don't you just buy a fake one from my-" Souta was abruptly cut off as Mistress Centipede lifted him into the air. She opened her mouth wide, making long, foul, very sharp-looking teeth, visible. Then she chomped into Souta's left side. Fortunately, she avoided any important internal organs, and didn't even go that deep. You see, her intention was not to kill or eat Souta, but simply to get the jewel. And she got it indeed.

As she pulled back from Souta, now flying free in the air, a small, pink sphere came flying out of Souta's side. 'That thing... came out of... me?' For Souta now, time was traveling rather slowly. No more thoughts traveled through his mind. All at once, time returned to its normal speed as Souta hit the ground.

"Jewel!" Mistress Centipede said. "At last, the Sacred Jewel is within my reach!" She crouched down to the ground, near where the jewel had fallen, and stuck out a disgustingly long tongue, scooped it up, and swallowed it.

"No! Bitch, that's mine!" the girl on the tree exclaimed.

Mistress Centipede then quivered and shed her skin. This was very repulsing to Souta, as her original form was oddly gross enough, her new skin looked like it had the plague. In any case, even Souta could tell that her power had risen a great deal since swallowing the pink thing that came out of him.

Suddenly, a group of villagers, along with priestess Kaede, entered the small clearing, while Mistress Centipede wound her long insect body around the tree, crushing Souta up against the girl.

In any other situation, this might be considered somewhat... tantalizing. However, faced with the prospect of his impending death, Souta could not bring himself to consider that he was currently pressed up very tightly against a rather cushy and apparently shapely young woman. It's not like she was dressed sexily or anything. In fact, she was dressed rather like a boy. She was pretty dirty - which made sense, considering she wouldn't have had a bath except for the occasional rain shower in at least 50 years - and she smelled. Half of the smell was dirt, but the other half was strangely pleasing. But there was no time to think about that now. 'Why do I keep thinking of these weird things when I'm about to die?' Souta scolded himself.

As the villagers tried in vain to once again vanquish the now super-powered Mistress Centipede, the girl on the tree asked Souta "Hey, Tsuta... this arrow... can you pull it out?"

Kaede, who was wisely staying out of the pointless fight, heard the girl and commanded Souta "No! You mustn't let Inuyasha free! If you do, she will unleash a great horror unto us!"

Souta, who had led the relatively cushy life of a modern Japanese boy up to this point, did not think there was anything that could possibly be worse than being eaten by some freaky woman-insect in 15th century Japan. After seconds of careful consideration, he decided what to do. He pulled out the arrow.

Well, not exactly. He managed to get his hands around the arrow and put all his strength into pulling it out while exclaiming "I WILL NOT die here or now!" He never did pull it out, though. But that's because the arrow just... dissolved. It was quite peculiar.

The girl on the tree - Inuyasha, was that her name? - started to laugh. As her laughter became increasingly loud, she lurched forward. The vines that formally bound her to the God Tree slipped away, and before anyone could blink, Mistress Centipede was sliced in a few places, and this "Inuyasha" was off the tree.

Mistress Centipede, who thankfully seemed to have learned to say something beyond "jewel" with her power upgrade, sneered at the girl. "Filthy halfbreed, you dare to think you can defeat me?"

"Feh," Inuyasha said. "I don't think nothin'. I know!" and with that, she shouted "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!", did one stroke with her arm, and Mistress Centipede came to pieces. Literally.

"Quick, boy, remove the jewel before she reassembles herself!" Kaede shouted to Souta.

"Uh... you mean this pink thing, right?" Souta, who had fallen back a ways after Inuyasha leapt from the tree, picked up the apparent jewel from one of the pieces of the former Mistress Centipede.

"Yeah, that's right. Now give it to me!" Inuyasha said, flexing her clawed hand in a menacing manner.

"What? You mean you're..." Souta was about to say something like 'not one of the good guys,' then considered that Kaede had told him earlier that freeing her would unleash destruction. And all at once, Souta started to regret his decision.

OoO

Well, how's that? Inuyasha's awake! You know, typing this, having Inuyasha finally named, I'm starting to feel awkward calling a girl by that name. I mean, it just sounds weird. Maybe because I associate it so much with a very male character, but still... I'm considering having Souta comment on what a weird name that is, especially on a girl, and maybe call her by a slightly different name, once they become a bit more personable.

Iron Reaver Soul Stealer versus Claws of Steel versus Sankon Tessou. If this were a parody fic, I'd randomly switch between the three of them, but it's not. I think Iron Reaver sounds the best in this, however annoying it is to type. At least I shouldn't have to use it that much. I mean, I just have to wait until... um... yeah...

Speaking of Shippo, I think I'll leave his/her gender ambiguous in this. I mean, enough people thought he was a girl in the Viz dub anyway. Whatever. Kind of like with Buyo. I don't feel like going back and typing this for chapter 1, but I have no idea what gender Buyo is supposed to be. I think it might be a he - but in the anime, Buyo has been referred to as both a "he" and a "she". A hermaphrodite cat, maybe? Perhaps he's been neutered? Maybe it doesn't matter anyway? Maybe.

And I'm having a bit of trouble describing the attacks here, and I'm just assuming that you've seen the anime and/or read the manga, so know what they look like anyway. If you haven't seen the anime and/or read the manga, then that might mean that my spectacular writing skills drew you into this story not even knowing what the heck Inuyasha was! This makes me happy.

Snapple.

**Edit:** If you've read this chapter before, chances are you may be wondering what happened to "Momiji". Well, I finally got around to editing the chapters so it reads his new name, **Tsuta**. So from this point on, the MaleKikyo formally known as Momiji is now known as Tsuta. This name change will be explained in the upcoming Intermission. Thank you!


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

"Well? Are you gonna give me the jewel, or are you too much of a little girl?" Inuyasha sneered.

"Souta! You must not hand her the jewel! If she comes in contact with it, her power will grow enormous!" Kaede said.

"And then we'll really be screwed, right?" Souta called back.

"Well, little girl?" Inuyasha said to the very male and somewhat offended Souta, "If you're not gonna give it to me... I'll just have to take it from you, won't I!" as she took a a swipe at him. Luckily, he jumped back just in time and avoided injury.

"Man, maybe I should've just let the villagers deal with Mistress Centipede after all..."

Kaede sighed, then pulled what looked like a rosary out of her robes. "It seems I'll have to use this after all..."

As Inuyasha took another swing at Souta, she was startled by the sudden appearance of a beaded "collar" on her neck. "What the hell is this?"

"Souta! Quickly, utter a word to subdue her!" Kaede yelled.

"What? Subdue?" If he had the time, Souta would probably have gone into a fantasy involving attractive young ladies and being able to control them by simply uttering a single word. After all, he was a teenage boy. But it's hard to think dirty thoughts when you're being attacked by a vicious monster.

"You think you can subdue me?!" Inuyasha exclaimed, once again lunging for Souta.

"Quickly!" Kaede said urgently.

"Um... uh... Down, girl!" Souta finally said.

The rosary around Inuyasha's neck began to glow and tug towards the ground. Then she crashed down. "What... the hell?" Inuyasha said, pulling on the rosary.

"It's pointless, Inuyasha. Only Souta can remove those beads from your neck," Kaede said, standing next to Souta.

"Why you-!" Inuyasha said, about to attack Kaede.

"Souta?"

"Down!" and with that, Inuyasha crashed to the ground once again.

Everyone returned to the village, where reconstruction had already begun on the many broken homes and stables. As Kaede patched up Souta's wound - from the bite Mistress Centipede gave him - she explained that now, with the shikon jewel once again the world, many creatures, humans and demons both, would began seeking out its power. With the power of the jewel, she explained, practically any desire could be made a reality.

"So, you want the jewel, right?" Souta asked Inuyasha. "Why? Want bigger boobs or something?"

Kaede, who snorted a bit at Souta's last comment, said, "She's only a half-demon..."

Inuyasha, who had become increasingly irritated through the whole conversation, sat up and punched a hole in the floor. "You know, hag, you've been acting like you know me pretty well since we first met. Just where the hell do you get off?"

"Ah, it's no surprise you don't recognize me. While your appearance has not changed, the little sister of the man who bound you to that tree has gotten older in the last 50 years," Kaede sighed.

"What? You're that little brat, Kaede? Pfff," Inuyasha raised an eyebrow, "if you're this old, then that Tsuta must be older'n dirt." She absentmindedly scratched her nose.

"My elder brother is dead," Kaede said. For a split second, Inuyasha looked like she had gotten stabbed in the heart. But the look faded as quickly as it had come, and no one could be sure it had ever been there to begin with. "He died soon after he sealed you to the tree.

"Ha! Well that's nice to hear."

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet, Inuyasha. I believe Souta here may be the reincarnation of my departed elder brother," Kaede said, indicating our hero.

"What? Me?"

"Yes. You seem to have the same sort of powers my brother had, and you were even able to remove the magic arrow that he first cast. And the shikon jewel, which was burned with my brother's body, came out of yours..."

Later that day, around lunchtime, Souta went to give some food to Inuyasha, who had gone outside for some alone time.

"Hey!" Souta shouted up to her, who was sitting in a tree. "I thought we could talk or something over lunch!" he smiled his most charming smile.

Inuyasha was rather suspicious, but came down anyway. "What do you want?"

"You want this 'jewel' thing to become a full demon, is that it? Kaede told me that's why you stole it the first time."

"Yeah. So?"

"Well, I was thinking that I might just give you the jewel." This was met with a very curious look from Inuyasha. "But only if you start being nicer."

"What?"

"Look, you're obviously a chick, right? Maybe if you start acting like one, I'll give you the jewel," Souta laughed. "What kind of a name is 'Inuyasha' for a girl, anyway? What about 'Inasa' or 'Nusha' or something?"

"Don't you even think about calling me that!" Inuyasha said, shaking with anger.

"I think I'll call you Isha."

"Why you..." Inuyasha was ready to pounce.

"Down," Souta laughed. And Inuyasha crashed to the ground once again.

Later that night, as Souta tried to sleep, he considered that he had already been away from home for two days. "Mom must be really worried..." he thought. "I wonder if I'll ever find my way back..." As Souta drifted slowly off into a troubled sleep, he had no idea that the first of the seekers of the sacred jewel had come to visit.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

It peeked in on Souta and the jewel from the window. But Inuyasha spotted its three-eyed self from her spot on the fence and tossed a stone at it. As it flew off into the night, Inuyasha said to herself, "So, the first of the demons has sniffed out the jewel. And a crow demon, too. That means trouble."

At some time the next morning, Souta had snuck off back into the forest. He reasoned that since he had ended up in this era through the well, maybe he could go back to his own era by going back through it. But he couldn't make it just yet. He was knocked to the ground by someone or something behind him, and then knocked out cold.

Meanwhile, in the village, the villagers and Kaede were very worried - it had occurred to several of them that Souta was clearly no longer there. This caught the attention of Inuyasha, sitting nearby. She took off immediately, cursing Souta for running off with the jewel.

Souta woke up in a small, run-down house... somewhere. He was surrounded by ugly guys - bandits, by the looks of them.

"But boss, I don't understand why we needed to bring this boy here. If we were gonna kidnap someone, that village had a few desirable females in it!" one of the bandits said.

"Unless, maybe, the boss wants to..." another trailed off, looking at Souta uncomfortably.

Souta looked up, to see the ugliest and biggest of the bandits. He had an incredibly dumb-looking face. His eyes were unfocused, and he kept burping and drinking sake. Souta figured this was the boss. "The jewel..." he said. "I want... the shikon jewel..." Souta nearly hit his face on the floor. Not another deranged monster that says nothing except "jewel" all the time!

The boss then hoisted himself up using his sword. Then he pulled Souta up by his shirt collar and pulled out the shikon jewel.

"Hey! Give that back, jerk!" Souta said, struggling. He managed to shove the boss-man a little, but not nearly enough to do any real damage. Or maybe... the boss stumbled and fell backwards. By the time he got himself back up, two of the bandits were holding Souta back. The boss held up his sword and swung down. Souta thought for sure his head would soon be rolling across the floor...

...Except that the boss hit one of the bandits in the neck. "Oops," he said. The other bandits around Souta backed up a bit. As the boss brought his sword up again and said, "This time I'll get you," Souta took the opportunity and ran out of range. The boss still lunged, and hit another one of the bandits. The other bandits, now very distressed over the fact that their boss seemed to be taking them out one by one, simply gazed on in horror.

Souta figured that he wouldn't be able to outrun or overpower the boss, and picked up a spear he spotted. He pointed it menacingly at the boss, who promptly chopped it in half. Souta, in a corner with very few options, took a second to reflect on how many times in the past two and a half days he thought death was coming, and considered this might be the final time. But that sword never made contact with Souta's flesh. When he heard a weird clanging sound, he looked up at a flash of red and white.

Inuyasha had made it at the last second, and it seemed that the boss' sword had broken when he hit her cloak. "Inasha?"

Inuyasha bristled. "Don't use that name!"

"You came to save me? Ha, you were worried, weren't you!" Souta teased.

"No, idiot! I came to save the jewel! And you..." Inuyasha said, turning towards the boss, "...I hate the smell of you. The smell of half-decayed flesh!"

"What?" Souta smelled the air. Now that she mentioned it, it did smell pretty bad, beyond the unbathed man smell.

"I knew you'd be trouble! Show yourself, crow demon!" Inuyasha shouted, swiping at the armor over the boss' heart. When the armor fell away, she, Souta, and all the bandits saw that in place of a very important organ, a three-eyed crow had dug itself a nice little hole in the boss' chest. Some of the bandits screamed and ran off, and Souta decided this might be the grossest thing he'd seen since he got here. Inuyasha simply reprimanded the crow for being too weak to fight its own battles and having to possess tubs like that guy. Then she lunged for the crow, sticking her hand into its little hole.

The crow escaped out the back of the boss, and Inuyasha saw that it had the jewel in its mouth. Then it flew out a hole in the hut. Inuyasha, faced with the fact that she couldn't catch something flying so high in the air, then spotted a bow and some arrows - left by one of the bandits. "Come on!" she yelled at Souta, handing over the bow and arrows. "We can't let him get away!"

"Wait, what do you intend to do?" Souta asked, looking reproachfully at the weapons.

"Hop on my back. I can keep up with it on the ground, but only an arrow can reach it."

"No way am I riding on the back of a girl," 'at least not in these circumstances.'

"The crow demon eats humans to get stronger. Do you really want it feasting on all the people of the world?" Inuyasha glared.

"Just one problem, though," Souta said, riding uncomfortably on Inuyasha's back. He was uncomfortable for two reasons. One, Inuyasha moved with a series of runs and hops, which, when combined with the unpaved and untamed ground, made for a very bumpy ride. Two, Inuyasha proved to have a surprisingly small figure under all that bluster and robes, and Souta didn't completely fit on her back, so he had to angle himself so that he didn't fall off. The problem he spoke of, though, was this: "I don't know anything about archery. I've never hit anything straight on in my life!"

"Well, you'll have to start now. Look," Inuyasha said, turning her face upwards. The crow demon, which they'd been able to keep up with pretty well all this time, had swallowed the jewel and was transforming into something that barely resembled a crow - or anything, for that matter. "One shot is all you'll need to take down the crow. Tsuta was a master at archery," she added nonchalantly.

"I told you, I'm Souta!" Souta said, angry and exasperated. 'Still, I'll have to take it down,' he reasoned. "Here goes nothing!" and with that, he fired his first arrow.

And missed terribly. The peak of the arrow's flight was probably 2 full meters below and 1 behind the crow demon. They didn't see where the arrow went down, but it didn't really matter. "Geez, you really are bad at this!" Inuyasha yelled at Souta.

"I told you!"

The crow demon, Inuyasha, and Souta approached a village. The crow demon swooped down and grabbed a small boy. Luckily, the added weight of the boy both slowed and weighed down the crow, so it couldn't immediately soar back up to the sky. Giving Inuyasha the perfect opportunity to attack. As she took a swipe at it, Souta jumped off and grabbed the little boy from the crow. As the two were falling down the earth, the crow opened its enormous mouth wide, about to devour them. But Inuyasha used her claws just in time and ripped it to shreds, just like she had done to Mistress Centipede in chapter 3.

Souta and the boy finally landed on the ground, and Souta pulled a demon foot off the boy's arm. As the crow's body started reassembling itself, Inuyasha asked Souta if he could see the jewel, but Souta was too busy awkwardly trying to comfort the little boy to hear.

As the little boy was returned to his mother, Souta then spotted a glowing circle under the crow's wing and pointed it out. Inuyasha swiped, but the crow was too far out of range. It had completely assembled itself - except for its foot that Souta still had - and was flying off.

'Man, what do I do...' Souta thought worriedly. 'Wait... maybe...' he pulled a head-kerchief out of his pocket, fumbled with something, and aimed another arrow at the crow demon.

"What are you doing, idiot? You'll never hit," Inuyasha said.

"No," Souta said, pulling the arrow back. "This one will hit!" and he let the arrow go. Inuyasha saw that the crow's foot was tied to the arrow Souta had just released. "Hey!" he said happily, as the arrow pierced the crow.

Then the crow's body was completed surrounded in a pink light. A faint, but ominous, cracking sound came from where the crow had been, and many, small beams of the same pink light went off in every direction. 'Whoa... I have a bad feeling...' Souta thought.

Souta once again rode on Inuyasha. "You're sure the jewel landed over here somewhere?" she asked, irritated that she had to run in yet another direction for the jewel that had almost been hers not too long ago.

"Yeah, positive," Souta asked. He still had a funny feeling about the jewel, but he also felt its presence in the direction he had pointed out.

Suddenly, from above, the crow demon's head attacked them. "Man, what a pest!" Inuyasha growled, and she pounded its head into the ground. Something small and pink popped out. "The jewel?" Inuyasha asked, sounding a bit excited.

Souta went over to it and picked it up. He remembered the jewel, it had been a little smaller than a classic superball. But this.. it was barely bigger than a grain of rice. "I... guess..." It had the same color, glow, and feel of the shikon jewel, so maybe... "...it could be a piece of the jewel..."

"What?!"

Back in Kaede's village, Inuyasha was distressing over the jewel.

"But why?! How in hell could this have happened?!" she moaned.

"Calm down. I suppose that when Souta fired his arrow, it must have hit not only the crow demon, but the jewel. I suspect that there are many other pieces like the one you found, scattered all over. Who knows how many pieces it could have broken into," Kaede said, calm as ever.

"But this little piece... it gave enough power to just the head of that crow to let it move around and attack on its own..." Souta said, holding up the little piece.

"Yes. And now, with many pieces like it scattered all about, more and more evil creatures will have the same sort of powers," Kaede continued. "It is up to the two of you to gather all the shards and put the jewel back together."

"Pff. Are you sure that's wise, hag? I'm one of the evil creatures wanting the jewel, remember?" Inuyasha scoffed.

"Yes. But for now, there is no other choice."

For Souta, the prospect of this situation was less than ideal. Traveling alone with a dangerous, constantly irritated girl, gathering little pieces of a pink jewel from equally if not more dangerous creatures? What he really wanted was to go back home, see his family, sleep in a real bed, eat real food... And his favorite show was coming on soon, too!

OoO

Man. I actually got two manga chapters with that one. I've noticed, one of my chapters is usually one manga chapter. If I go as far as I plan to, that means this fanfiction is going to have almost 200 chapters! I'll have to figure out something else to do. I think maybe I won't do every plotline from the manga - like, I'll leave out the Toad Prince and Mayu and False Water God storylines and some others, maybe just mention them. I mean, you can just read the manga or read the anime for those, you know? And maybe make the chapters a bit longer so I can cover two or maybe three manga chapters at once.

**Edit**: Fixed several pronoun typos.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

"Aww, man," Souta said, sniffing his armpits. "I stink. I really oughtta take a bath. Hey, Kaede-san! Where's the nearest bathhouse?"

"'Bathhouse'?" Kaede answered, completely mystified.

"Oh, right... Don't have those yet... It feels like I haven't bathed in a week, though. Hm..."

"If you really wish to bathe yourself, there is a small spring nearby. But I think I should tell you..."

At the spring:

"...It's still fairly cold this time of year," Kaede finished.

"C-cold? What m-m-makes you say that?" Souta shivered in the water. Apparently mid-spring in the feudal era makes for some cold water. Souta had to force the more logical side of him into the water. The two parts of him that wanted to go in was the part that reminded him that he hadn't taken a bath in three days and he was covered in sweat and blood and mud and "demon slime" and the other part that wanted to go in was the very masculine part that was trying to prove something - to who, though, is a good question. There were three main things telling him it was a bad idea to into such cold water - and two of those reasons rhyme with "shmesticles." But still, after a while, it wasn't as bad. As he swum around in the little pool, Souta started wondering about the shikon jewel and how exactly he was supposed to team up with that Inuyasha girl to find them.

And speaking of Inuyasha, she had decided this was a good opportunity to steal Souta's jewel shard. She jumped down from a nearby ledge and started rifling through his clothing. "Damn, where is it?"

"What are you doing?" Souta asked from the water. "If you wanted my boxers that badly, you could've just asked."

"Huh?"

"I believe she is looking for this," Kaede said, holding up the jewel fragment.

"How nice for you that you figured that out," Inuyasha said, crossing her arms.

"If you're done fondling my underwear now, I'd like them back," Souta said, wading over. He had considered just getting out, because he really only half-thought of Inuyasha as a girl anyway, but he didn't want to offend Kaede. True, Kaede wasn't really watching Souta, and probably in her 50+ years of life she would've seen at least one naked male. But maybe it was more that Souta was afraid what would happen to him if he exposed himself to an old lady.

As Souta went off to change behind a rock, Kaede reminded Inuyasha about the whole "having to work together with Souta in order to complete the shikon jewel" situation.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time!" Inuyasha said. "Look, I already told you I'd work with that stupid boy for now!"

"Oh, I'm the stupid one?" Souta scoffed, returning - dressed, of course.

"What..." Inuyasha narrowed her eyes. '...Tsuta?' she thought.

In order to give Souta a chance to wash his clothes, Kaede had found him some old priest robes. They were a bit too big for him - clearly they were sized for an older man, one with no more growth spurts in his future - but still, the resemblance to the 50 years deceased priest and brother of Kaede was uncanny. Inuyasha, remembering the last encounter she had with Tsuta, went on edge, and Kaede gave her a curious look.

Shortly afterwards, Kaede was called away to help a sick child. And Souta noticed that Inuyasha was pointedly ignoring him. So it came as a bit of a shock when Inuyasha said, "Hey... Take off those clothes."

"Hm? Wow, I had no idea you felt that way about me," Souta smiled teasingly.

"What? No! I just meant put on your other, weird clothes."

"Why? Do I remind you of someone whose name is 'Tsuta'?" Souta raised an eyebrow.

"Definitely not," Inuyasha turned and crossed her arms.

"Yeah, whatever," Souta sighed and collected his now washed - and still wet - school uniform. "See ya."

"Wait, where are you going?"

"I'm going home. You don't want me around, right? And I don't think you really need me anyway. Like I said, see ya," Souta started walking off.

"Wait! What about the shikon jewel shard?!" Inuyasha exclaimed, standing up.

"Oh, you mean this?" Souta pulled out a small drawstring bag. "You can just calm down" slam "because I'm keeping it." And off he went.

"Why, you!"

Back in the village, Kaede went to see to the sick girl. Kaede couldn't tell exactly what it was, but she sensed some sort of danger. All at once the girl, who had been lying unconcious before, sat up, arms stretched out in front of her. Kaede then spotted, just barely, something - it couldn't be... hair? - holding the girl up. One of the hands, with six strands wrapped around it, reached for a nearby knife, and lunged for Kaede.

Souta once again made his way through the forest, back to the well that had apparently led him here. He was sure he could get back home through it, and was almost ready to jump right in. But he hesitated when he saw the bones in the well. 'From that Mistress Centipede?' he wondered. "Bleah." He thought he could maybe a wait until the bones had disappeared through the well to attempt traveling through it. As he turned, thinking about temporarily returning to the village, he was quite surprised to find his cheek got cut by seemingly thin air. Then he saw that hair filled the clearing like a giant spiderweb. But not as sticky. "Hair?" he asked himself.

And he was more surprised to receive an answer. "La? You mean you can see it?" Souta turned to see a fairly scantily-clad girl - even by today's standards. Souta was momentarily entranced by the copious amount of visible boobage on the girl. But he snapped out of it, and noticed that all the hair seemed to be coming from her, and he couldn't explain how, but he just knew she wasn't human.

"Who are you?" he asked, trying to sound like he could definitely fight her.

"I'm Yura. Yura of the hair," she said. Then she moved her hand and some of the hairs went for Souta. One of them took the bag with the jewel shard in it. "My, my, just look what you've done to the jewel. Someone's been a naughty boy."

"Hey, give that back!" Souta shouted, giving a forceful tug on a handful of hair. But this "Yura" lunged at him with her sword instead. Souta, not knowing what else to do, leaned back. A bit too far back, it seems, because Souta then fell backwards, head first, into the well.

"It's no use trying to escape!" Yura called, standing over the well. But as she looked in, she was quite astounded to find that Souta was not in the well at all. "What was that boy?"

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was bounding towards the village, assuring herself that it didn't matter that Souta left. When she arrived, though, she was greeted with several girls wielding knives and scythes and such, all seeming to float in air. She easily knocked them all out, vaguely wondering what was going on with the village women that day. Up ahead, Kaede was splayed on the ground, her shoulder bleeding. "Please, do not hurt them," she said, as Inuyasha came over to her side. "They are under a spell, under the control of someone or something. You must find Souta-"

"Nah, I can handle this myself," Inuyasha said, standing.

[Author doesn't feel like describing the fight sequence with Yura's hair and the controlled villagers, read chapter 7 or watch the corresponding episode if you don't remember it]

"Man! They just don't stop coming!" Inuyasha said, rubbing her neck. 'And I can't kill them, since they're just possessed or something...' "Alright, hag, let's go!" Inuyasha got Kaede on her back and ran off to a forest. "You can see the hair, right? Tell me where it leads and I'll track down whoever's in charge."

Kaede, who was still bleeding pretty badly, said, as Inuyasha put her in a hole and began to cover her with leaves, "Do not ask me. I'm in no condition to do much. You must find Souta. I'm sure he will be able to see the hair."

Inuyasha made a sound like "hurrrr".

Souta came to. It took a few seconds to register what had happened. "Geez... What was with that girl, anyway?" He was still in the well, and was surrounded by bones - presumably the same bones of Mistress Centipede. Souta wondered why he wasn't dead, because he was sure that girl was going to stab him or cut off his head. But then he heard a voice, from outside the well. A very familiar voice...

"But I swear he fell in! Really! I saw it myself!"

"We've already looked here! You must've been dreaming!"

A flashlight shined down on Souta. "Grandpa?! Kagome?!"

After they hauled Souta out of the well, his feelings were indescribable. The buildings, the concrete everywhere, his grandfather and younger sister... He was actually home! "Souta! What on earth happened?" Grandpa asked.

"I thought I was gonna die!" Souta exclaimed, his manly pride barely containing his urge to cry and hug his grandfather.

Souta told his family the whole story - or most of it, anyway. As he took a nice, warm bath with cleaning products, his family discussed what he had told him.

"It's got to be true! I saw that monster pull him into the well myself!" Kagome had been insisting what she saw was true the whole time Souta was gone, but no one had believed him until Souta came back.

Grandpa considered what he heard about the well. The legend was that the evil of it caused monsters and such in it to be caught somewhere in the flow of time. Souta disappearing for three days and reappearing inside of it certainly suggested this was true. So Grandpa did the best thing he could think of: he covered the well with boards and put binding spells all over it.

"So the well will stay shut forever now?" Souta had come back from his bath and sat in the kitchen. 'Wow, it feels like that whole thing was just a long dream. But... I hope everything's okay over there...' But somehow, he doubted that.

Later, as the family dined on oden - which Souta was very happy about, having only eaten the foodstuffs of a poor village of the middle ages for about three days - Grandpa explained to Souta about the seals on the well. He said that the well would never open again, and all the spells were so strong that no person, monster, spirit, or demon would be able to break them and get through the well. Souta was too excited to pay any attention, and when the food was finally ready, he picked up his chopsticks and said, "Alright, let's dig in and - " He was cut off by the sound of footsteps and a sliding door opening - very unusual, since the four members of the family were all in that room already. The four of them turned to see who had opened the door.

And found a very irritated girl, dressed in red, with small spell scrolls stuck in her soft, white hair. "Er... Inuyasha?" Souta asked, in vague disbelief.

"You... No one told you to come back home, you know," she sneered.

"What... how did you...?"

"Through the well, you idiot!"

"What?! That's impossible!" Grandpa protested, more swayed by the possibility that his spells had been broken than the fact that a strange talking creature had just burst into their home. "Those barrier scrolls have been handed down from generation to generation, and they..."

"What? These stupid doodles?" Inuyasha said, pulling one out of her hair. Ignoring the devastated Grandpa, she grabbed Souta and began to pull him out the door. "Come on, we've got stuff to do!"

"Hold it right there!" Mrs. Higurashi said. "Your ears... are they real?" she asked as she rubbed them.

"Ooh, I want a turn! It's like a puppy!" Kagome said excitedly.

"Um... could you stop that?" Inuyasha said, putting on an irritated face, although it secretly gave her a nice feeling in her ears.

But then Souta saw something that clearly was not hers on her back. "Hey, that hair..." he picked it up.

"Huh? What hair?" she asked, looking right where Souta held it.

"You can't see it?" 'Maybe... it's that girl Yura's hair...' He ran for the well, to be greeted by a great mass of hair coming out of the well. The hair began to lunge, and it went for Inuyasha - who had quietly followed Souta. She couldn't see the hair, but could feel it wrapped around her, and cut almost blindly. 'When you cut them, more strands come out...' Souta realized. Then he noticed two strands in the well, one of which was completely straight. These were not attacking like the others. "These two hairs! They're controlling the rest! Cut here!" he pointed. Inuyasha went and slashed, but missed. 'Right, she can't see them... Oh, I know!' Souta grabbed the strands so tight, it drew blood. The blood traveled down the strands, and then Inuyasha could see them. She cut them, and all the rest of the hair suddenly fell limp. 'That's weird... Yura already took the jewel shard from me... So why is she still going after us?' "Inuyasha, we're going back!" he said, getting ready to hop in the well.

"What? I thought you were staying here, away from all the blood and mud and 'demon slime'," Inuyasha snorted.

'But if I stay, not only will my family be in danger, but maybe the rest of the world...' he was suddenly drawn out of thought when he felt something put on his head. "Huh?"

"It's a cloth spun from the fur of the fire rats. It's stronger than any suit of armor." Inuyasha had taken off her red cloak and put it on Souta's head, revealing her white underlayer. "With your weak human skin, you'll need it."

"Gee, thanks," Souta said sarcastically.

The two then jumped into the well, a very determined "Let's go!" echoed inside.

OoO

I really need to start calling Inuyasha something else. I kept putting "he" or "him" in this chapter when I was talking about her. Kuh~

I took out a joke in this, too. It was lame, but it's when Inuyasha says "I heard you the first time!" there was a line she said under her breath that was supposed to come after that said something like "you're more annoying and repetitive than Viz dub Kagome in the first season." Although one could argue she was always annoying. This has to do with Kagome in season 1 repeating herself - I think she pondered over Inuyasha's "half-demon"ness 20 times by the end of the Sesshomaru introduction arc. Remember? She would be like, he's half-demon, but then wonder if someone can be half-demon, and conclude that if one is half-demon, the other half must be human, but how can someone be half... whatever. Plus, dub Kagome points out the obvious way too much. I have fond memories of telling her to shut up with my friend the summer after my 7th grade year. Shippo, too. Seriously. They'd be like "It's a demon!" and we'd be like "Really? I hadn't noticed!" Why didn't Inuyasha ever say stuff like that? Sounds like him. Rgrah!

What does this have to do with anything? I'm not sure.

I must be tired. I think I called Souta "Kagome" at least once while typing, and I called Inuyasha "Souta" at least twice. Maybe because it's almost 2 AM. Sleeeeeeeeep. So, wow, that's the end of the manga's volume 1. Next we'll have volume two, where we'll finish up with Yura. I'm not excited about tackling Sesshomaru, er, Sesshoko versus Inuyasha: round 1, but I suppose I'll have to. Then I think I'm skipping until the resurrection of Tsuta. I mean, honestly, I don't think there'd be enough of a difference in the storylines for me to do all of those stories. It'd just basically be slight differences in dialogue and pronouns, really. I'm really excited for female!Miroku to show up. Still have to come up with a name for her. I'm thinking about changing "Tsuta", too. But, whatever. So, if you read a later chapter and see that the name is different, accept the fact that I've changed it. I'll go back and change the names in the chapters previous, but... Wow, I haven't even changed it yet, and I'm explaining all about it. Must... stop... typing...

And if you were wondering about the "You can calm down" slam "because..." thing, remember that the subduing word is "down" (the original InuYasha's is "sit"). And since Souta said it, Inuyasha went down. It was intentional, fo' sho'.

I think this is the longest fanfiction chapter I've ever written. :O


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

"But aren't your wounds hurting you? Or do you have cowhide for skin?" Souta called up from the base of the tree Inuyasha was sitting in.

"I'm fine, idiot. Lemme alone," she drawled, irritated.

"Well, you can either bleed to death or I could hurt you by 'downing'" slam "you from up... oh, sorry. Didn't mean that one."

"Dammit!" Inuyasha stood up, dusting herself off. "Don't you understand? My body is special!"

'I'll say' Souta thought. "Hey, are you stripping?"

"No, fool! Just showing you that I don't need your 'first aid' because I'm fine!"

---

Indeed. After Souta and Inuyasha traveled back through the well together, they entered Yura's layer. After a frightening ordeal, during which Souta seemed to have been engulfed by flames - although he clearly got out all right - the team recovered their shikon jewel shard, with an added bonus of one Yura had, and Inuyasha referred to Souta by his actual name for the first time.

She hasn't since.

After the fight, Souta went home for some supplies, as Inuyasha had gotten pretty beaten up - stabbed and such - and they had come to terms with searching together for the shards in feudal era.

---

"Wow. I didn't realize anyone could recover so quickly from a sword going all the way through them. Ah, well," Souta sighed.

"Well, a regular old human wouldn't," Inuyasha scoffed, pulling her sleeves up.

"So, you mean you're not stripping?" Souta asked innocently.

As Inuyasha was about to burst in outrage, she stopped and slapped her chest - the part right below the collarbone. Not the bust part.

As Souta looked in with interest, Inuyasha looked into her hand and said, almost happily, "Well well! If it isn't Myoga the flea!"

"Flea???" this was getting to be too much for Souta.

"What are you doing here, ya old goat?" If Myoga had been much, much bigger, Inuyasha probably would've slapped him on the back. As it were, that would probably kill him if she did it seriously.

They decided to discuss whatever Myoga came for in Kaede's hut, for fear of Myoga blowing away in the wind.

"Someone's trying to rob my father's grave?"

"Yes. And as guardian of the tomb, I couldn't just sit back and let it be robbed," Myoga nodded.

"So you abandoned it and came running here?" Inuyasha asked, with her characteristic sarcastic face on. "You haven't changed a bit."

"I've heard of your father, Inuyasha. They say he was a great beast who made the entire western lands his home," Kaede said, envisioning an impossibly large dog-spirit.

"Pff. I don't remember him at all," Inuyasha said uncaringly.

"Yes. He was a most powerful demon. And he had the most delicious blood," Myoga nodded once again.

"So your dad's where you get the 'half-demon' from? What about your mom?" Souta asked.

"She died a long time ago," Inuyasha demeanor changed to the defensive in a split second.

"She was a most beautiful- ཛྭ Myoga's explanation was cut off by his abrupt squishing, due to Inuyasha, who stormed out right afterwards.

"Geez, what's her problem?" Souta crossed his arms. 'Maybe she didn't get along with her mom? Hm... so she's an orphan? I felt bad enough when my dad died, and she lost both of her parents... I don't suppose her other half could be...' Souta wandered outside absentmindedly, and approached the tree Inuyasha sat huffily in.

And once again, it could only have been an hour or so later, yet was clearly late night. What's up with that?

As Souta was pondering Inuyasha's heritage, he was startled to come face to face with the ground.

"Get down!" Inuyasha said, holding Souta to the ground.

"Whoa, what?" Souta suddenly sensed something. Just what was hard to tell, but it made him feel very uneasy. And somehow, he could tell Inuyasha felt it too.

As they both looked up, they spotted a carriage flying through the air, being driven by little imp things. Peculiar. They also spotted a very elegant woman in the carriage. Inuyasha took a step forward, and said, mystified, "Mother?"

"Inuyasha?" the woman asked.

"Wait, didn't you say your mother was dead?" Souta asked Inuyasha with disbelief.

This disbelief was multiplied as a giant hand came out of nowhere and crushed the carriage, woman and all.

"Mother?!" Inuyasha said with fear and rage at the same time. And then the fire came.

It came from the same direction as the hand - which was apparently part of a giant ogre - and had a radius of about 20 feet. Souta looked for the source, assuming it would have been the ogre's mouth, but saw that it came from a staff, wielded by a small green thing. It and the tall white thing were perched on the ogre's shoulder.

The white thing, with a voice like a funeral lily, said, "Jaken. Kill her only after we've had a chance to speak."

Inuyasha obviously recognized that voice, and exclaimed with an anger she'd not yet shown before, "Is that you, Sesshoko?!"

"Ah. You remember me! I'm quite flattered, my dear little sister," the white thing, now identified as a young lady named Sesshoko, replied, arms crossed.

"Sister?" It was difficult for Souta to imagine that Inuyasha had any sort of past, or that she could possibly be related to anything. Her mom didn't even look like her. In fact, her mom looked... human...

Needlessly dramatic ellipsis...

"Hm?" said Sesshoko, redirecting her gaze slightly. "Why, is that a human boy with you?"

"Why? Got a problem?" Souta could tell it would be hard to like this girl.

"Well, it's fitting for you to be frittering around with humans. After all, your own worthless mother was one," Sesshoko was perched on the ogre's wrist, on the arm that still held Inuyasha's apparent mother.

"Look, if you're just here to insult me..." Inuyasha growled.

"You honestly think I have nothing better to do? You are to direct me to father's grave," Sesshoko sneered.

"So you're the one grave-robbing?"

"Now, now, please don't use that vulgar a term. I am merely seeking what is mine."

"But why the hell would I know where it is?"

"Oh, dear. But if that is the case, your mother will just have to suffer," Sesshoko smiled a smile behind comprehensively evil... whatever that means.

The ogre hand began to grasp Inuyasha's mother tighter, and Inuyasha, although clearly worried, said, "Do you think I'm an idiot? Mother died a long time ago!"

"Are _you_ an idiot? You don't think I have the power to revive a person's soul and give it flesh?"

"It's alright... I've been dead once..." Inuyasha's mother said, giving a smile only a mother in pain for her child can give.

"No way!" Inuyasha leapt up and iron reavered the ogre hand off the rest of its arm, freeing her mother.

"A-are you all right, ma'am?" Souta asked nervously.

"Souta! Get her out of here!" Inuyasha called from up on the ogre.

"What?!" Sesshoko's expression changed. She went in to attack Inuyasha, who was about to return the favor, when Inuyasha's mother extended her arms, engulfing herself, Souta, and Inuyasha in a pink wash. Of light, that is.

Inuyasha came to and saw she was in an impossibly serene and beautiful field near a pond. A beautiful, serene, yet eerie and unsettling, glow emanated from everything, including her mother.

"Inuyasha, I must now return to the afterlife... You have grown into a fine young woman."

Souta was still a little fuzzed out, so you'll have to guess on his comments about that.

"Yeah, well... I was only little when you died..." Inuyasha was good at concealing her emotions, but it wasn't that hard to tell she was sad.

"Yes... I am sorry to have left you alone for so long..."

As Inuyasha and her mother continued this pointless chat, Souta came full-to. 'Oh, Isha and her mom are okay... and I don't see that Sesshoko or the green thing anywhere... But... hey!' Souta could see "Isha" and her mother's reflections in the pond... and could see... 'That mom has no face!' He tried to call out in concern and unexplainable outrage, but couldn't. 'Hey! She's got no face! Listen to me, dammit!'

OoO

What a weird note to end on. Well, I left out the cool part where Sesshomaru/ko rips that guys head off. But, hey, you can just read it, right?

I was planning to make this chapter shorter so I could talk about it...


	8. Intermission

Intermission

Oh we've come to intermission and it's time to stretch your toes, and if you are an aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrddvark, you should also stretch your nose...

Right... Well, here I'm gonna explain some things about the Gender Bendered fanfiction. You don't have to read this if you don't want, it's just to provide some exposition, explanations, and information...s.

NAMES: Obviously, some names are meant for girls and some for boys. Since I'm switching the genders of certain characters, I can't leave their names the same. That's why it's Souta instead of Kagome. You see, I figured if the Higurashi family had had a boy first, they would've named him Souta. But they actually had a girl, so it's Kagome. Yep. When Sango and Kohaku show up, they'll be under the same effect - male Sango is named Kohaku, female Kohaku is named Sango. They still look like their canon counterparts, only different genders.

For Inuyasha, I really didn't think I could change that. It sounds weird for a girl - and I do sometimes refer to her as a "he" when I type the stories up, but I catch it before I publish it - but it's a weird name anyway. For Sesshomaru/ko... "-maru" in his case is just the masculine name ending. And "-ko" is the feminine name ending. So, Sesshoko. Jaken was the same gender... which I think was male...

For Miroku: Miroku is a Japanese name for the Boddhisatva (?) Maitreya (get it? he's a Buddhist monk named for a form of Buddha!) After some research, I only found two Buddha-related female names. One of them was kind of long and gross-sounding, so I settled on Kannon, which was what I was intending to name her anyway. See's ya later!

Kouga and the wolves: Takahashi said the female wolf demons probably have their own "girl gangs" so we're set there. I've got a name picked out now, but I might switch it. Anyway, that's a few chapters away, and I think you'll really enjoy she-Kouga's introduction. I know I will.

Kikyo: Male Kikyo's original name was Momiji, but after some more research, I picked out Tsuta. It's Japanese for "ivy". I looked up some things about it in a superstition book, so the associations about ivy might be different in Japan than they are in the Western world, but it said ivy was a "kindly plant", lucky to women as holly was to men, and if a young girl wanted to know whom she would wed, she would put ivy in her pocket or against her chest and either the first man she saw walking afterward or the first man who spoke to her (after saying a little chant) would be her future husband. It's kind of weird, but I thought all of that kind of fit in with how Kikyo is (beyond her "drag Inuyasha to hell" phase), and how Tsuta would be, and Isha's relationship to him.

Naraku: Yeah... Actually appearing in chapter 17 (with 16 chapters up!) and I still haven't figured it out. I think I may end up having a homosexual Naraku here... I mean, I really can't bear to have a female Naraku, but the story doesn't really work with Naraku being interested in Inuyasha, and I think having a gay Naraku would be enough of a story difference. Hm.

Rin: I'd like a Rin/Kohaku relationship, so I guess I'll have to put in a boy Rin. That should be interesting. ...Er, I meant canon Rin/Kohaku, so boyRin and girlKohaku in this case.

Shippo: works for either gender. Which is cool, because I'm not saying if this Shippo is a boy or a girl. You'll have no way to tell! Maniacal laughter!

LENGTH and THE ENDING:

I've mentioned this several times, but I'm not sure when/where to end this fanfiction. I mean, I don't want to spend the next ten years of my life writing this story. Even though I am cutting out certain storylines, still, Inuyasha has 558 chapters, and one of _my_ fanfic chapters equals an average of two and a half manga chapters. Plus, I'm not good at writing action scenes, and InuYasha has a lot of those. I'm also unfamiliar with what happens between volumes 30 and 52 of the manga, making this somewhat difficult, although I know there's time for that to change.

But I'll continue writing as long as people are interested and I still feel like it. But rest assured, should I decided that enough is enough and I don't want to write anymore, I'll tell you, dear readers, so you aren't left wondering for the next four years what the heck happened to me. And should I get tired of this before we get close to the end, I'll try to motivate myself to include the epilogue. Because I already have that one figured out (it's more extended than the manga one, and says what happens to Koga! Gasp!)

As for the omitted storylines: I figured most of you have seen the Inuyasha anime or read the manga at some point, so I don't need to cover every individual story detail. And because I don't want to cover everything, or write the action sequences, and because some stories won't be that different even with switched genders. And I also don't want you to feel like you're just reading/watching the original but with different pronouns.

Thanks for all the support and compliments, too! It makes me happy to know so many people are enjoying my work! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in a review - although, if you're anonymous I can't reply to you. You can also Private Message me if you're a member. You just have to visit my Profile page and click "send a message".

But please note that I'm not _asking_ or telling you to review, I'm just saying if you have a question, put it in a review. It's okay if it's just the question. I'm not the "read or review or I won't write anymore beeches" type of author. You can read without reviewing. :)

But you can just review if you want to. Compliments are always welcome. ^_^ And that concludes the intermission.

It wasn't very long. Please hurry to your places to enjoy another song.


	9. Chapter 8

Last chapter I uploaded was Chapter 9. Sorry if I confused anyone. This chapter was supposed to be uploaded instead.. So, here's the real chapter 8! I'm so sorry about that... Why didn't anyone notice?

CHAPTER 8

"Before I return to the other side, daughter," Inuyasha's mother said, turning towards the pond, "look upon your reflection on the water's surface." Inuyasha made a move to do so, and saw herself as a small child. Her mother then moved up behind her and said, "Remember how I used to embrace you like this as a child?"

'Wow... that's kinda...' Souta couldn't recall ever seeing a mother hug her child in quite that way. It wasn't... perverted or anything, just... odd.

"Remember, daughter? How I used to hold you close when you were still small?"

Inuyasha, still staring into the water, then noticed what Souta had seen before. 'Her face... where's her face?' "Who... what are you?" She tried to turn towards the lady, but her embrace was too tight.

"Dear daughter, let your mother embrace you..." the lady said again.

"What are you?!" Inuyasha was able to wriggle free and turned fully towards the woman.

"I will never let you go again," the "mother" said, and somehow her hands were absorbed into Inuyasha's back.

'What??' Souta, whose head had cleared up, saw the eerily pink surrounding melt into an equally creepy darkish clearing. Then he saw why he wasn't able to move at all: imps binding him with chains. 'What the hell? Why are these green things all up in my fries?' Suddenly, he felt something like a bite on his cheek. Sitting up, he slapped the tiny demon culprit. "Thanks, Myoga. Looks like I'm less paralyzed than I thought."

Souta then noticed that his dear friend Isha and what he was beginning to suspect was not her mother were gone. It didn't take long to find them, however, and when he came to them, Inuyasha was unconscious and at least half absorbed by the now completely faceless woman. The woman-thing was in conversation with the green thing from earlier - Jaken, I think it was?

Souta came in on Jaken questioning what "black pearl" was supposed to mean. "Find out more!" Jaken said.

"But Lord Jaken, if I delve deeper, her soul will shatter," the faceless woman said.

"Do it anyway! Otherwise I will suffer at Lady Sesshoko's hands!"

"Butt face!" Souta exclaimed as Jaken met the water face-on thanks to a stealthy kick by our hero.

Then the faceless thing, Inuyasha disappearing ever more into its body, glided away from Souta. 'Okay... this is starting to really piss me off...' Souta took off after it/them.

When he caught up, he saw only one of Inuyasha's arms was left. "Shoot," was all he could think of to say. Out of ideas, he looked into the pond, and saw a reflection of the - still faceless - thing and an unconscious child version of Inuyasha with one arm not visible. 'Hm... maybe that's it!' Souta took the Staff of Two Heads, previously taken from Jaken, and smashed it into the reflection.

Immediately, Inuyasha... popped out of the faceless thing and fell to the ground. "It... was a lie..."

"You okay?" Souta said, squatting next to her.

"The whole thing was a lie!"

"But all the for the best, dear sister. Now I know where the gravesite lies," a wiltingly familiar voice came from nowhere. Sesshoko continued her speech as she lifted her sister in the air, one hand around her neck. "To think, it would be kept in such an obvious place. But, that's our father for you. 'Right black pearl,' pff. That must've taken quite a bit of magic. I supposed father wanted dearly to escape being robbed, eh?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" It amazed Souta how fiery-tempered Inuyasha could be, even in the face of being strangled.

"So it was given to you without your knowledge?" Sesshoko sighed. "Well, fear not. We shall visit father's grave together!" she smiled, using her fingers to stab Inuyasha's right eye.

"Bitch!" was all Souta could think of to say. Although one could say it wasn't entirely possible to decide which of the girls he meant.

Sesshoko apparently pulled something out of Inuyasha's eye - something small and black. "No wonder I couldn't find it, no matter where I searched. I had only a few clues as to where father hid his grave, I would never have guessed it would be in you, in this."

"That's your father's grave? That pearl?"

"You... you did all this... giving that thing the form of my mother... just for a stupid pebble?!" As Inuyasha covered her bleeding eye and clenched and shook, Souta reflected that he had never seen her angry like this before. If all the times before had been angry, this was _really_ pissed _and_ offended. "Grrr... You won't get away with that!"

Inuyasha lunged to attack Sesshoko, who predictably dodged. Then Sesshoko went to attack Inuyasha, but ended up destroying the faceless thing (the Nothing Woman), who jumped in front of Inuyasha, to apparently save her.

"The Nothing Woman saved her?" Souta looked on.

Myoga, who had been on Souta's shoulder this whole time, said, "She's born of a mother's love for a lost child. If she sees Inuyasha as a child in danger, what else can she do but save her?"

"Daugh...ter..." the Nothing Woman rasped, only to be stepped on by Sesshoko, and thus completely destroyed.

"Lady Sesshoko! I have recovered the Staff of Two Heads!" Jaken squealed, picking up the staff that Souta apparently dropped earlier without my noticing.

"Next, it will be your head lost as well," Sesshoko grabbed the staff from Jaken. She put the pearl on the ground, and placed the base of the staff on it. The Old Man head started laughing, and Jaken said something about that meaning that was the right grave. Then a swirling black light, looking like a vortex, appeared, and Sesshoko and Jaken disappeared through it.

"Lady Inuyasha!" Myoga called, jumping over to her shoulder - while Souta winced at the sound of 'Lady Inuyasha' - "Follow after them before the portal closes! Sesshoko will get the valuable treasure left by your father!"

"What do I care about some lousy treasure?" Inuyasha scoffed.

"B-but..."

"Shut up! I don't care about whatever 'treasure' crap is down there, but I will go after her... Souta! Stay here!" Inuyasha turned to where Souta had previously been standing, but he wasn't there.

"What're you just standin' around for? We've got some lily-white ass to kick!" Souta called, climbing into the portal.

"What?! You're not going! Sesshoko'll kill you!"

"She doesn't look so tough. Normally I wouldn't think of hitting a girl, but she's such a bitch, I won't care either way! Now come on, let's go!" and Souta jumped in.

Inuyasha was caught somewhere between a twitch and a sneer. "Boys are so stupid..." and she jumped in as well.

OoO

This was hard to write. I kinda didn't feel like writing this at all, but I did anyway. Also, I couldn't remember what happened in the original here, so I had to look through the manga... making it pretty similar to the manga. Sorry. At least one line is directly from the Viz translation. Somehow I skipped over explaining about the Nothing Woman / Un-Mother. Oh well. :)

...Needlessly dramatic ellipsis...

I'm not gonna write the rest of this story arc, and I think I'll have Sesshoko's arm cut off in the future. I mean, in future stories, her arm will already be gone. I'm still thinking about whether to go to the Shippo introduction arc next or to Kikyo's... er... Momiji's revival. I wasn't even considering doing the Shippo intro with the Thunder Brothers until I remembered about the whole "He'll come after you because he's in love with me" lie of Kagome's, and I thought it'd be fun to tackle that with Souta. But I don't want to go through all that for basically one small scene. Well, it's 12:15 AM as I write this, and I'm tired. See ya'll later!

Major kudos to anyone who caught the Degrassi reference in paragraph 8.

Wow, there was a lot of cursing in this chapter. I think I forgot to mention this before, but Souta's speech gets rougher and more offensive the angrier he is. Normally he's very proper and polite.


	10. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

"So, why are we heading back to Kaede's village again?" Souta was a bit irritated that every time they seemed to be making headway by leaving the village, they returned to it. Although that had actually only happened once so far.

"Shut up," Inuyasha had been in a weird mood since she had woken up that morning. It was different than her normal blustering, more vaguely irritated and uncomfortable.

Souta had also observed that she hadn't looked him in the eye since she had woken up. "Would it really be so hard to tell me?"

"Maybe she remembered something she left behind?" Shippo suggested.

"I don't think she owns anything besides what she's got on."

"Hey, where's Kaede?" Inuyasha asked one of the villagers.

"Boy, how'd we get here so fast?" Souta looked around in amazement.

"Lady Kaede? She's right there," the villager pointed. A very injured Kaede was coming right towards them.

"What happened to you?" Souta was concerned. It didn't look like she had merely fallen, unable to get up.

"Huh. Still alive?" Inuyasha scoffed, normal demeanor returning.

"You came?" Kaede was surprised.

A few minutes later, which actually looked like a few minutes later and was miraculously not night for once, the four climbed up the steps to the shrine. Souta (and Shippo) hadn't been up there before. Well, at least not in this era.

"So you smelled my blood on her?" Kaede meant the weird witch-demon that had flown by them the night before.

"Aww, were you concerned for the old lady?" Souta teased.

"Shut up!"

"Whoa, what happened here?" Shippo was commenting on the obvious damage at the top of the stairs. A desecrated shrine, a large impression in the ground like the one Miroku's father created when he... er... whoops.

"This is my brother's grave," Kaede sighed.

Souta and Inuyasha both twitched in her direction. "Last night, that fiend came, and took the urn with his bones... Even a witch like her could see my brother had strong powers... I fear what evil could result from his bones being in such hands..."

"Tch. I don't. That bastard killed me, remember?" and Inuyasha went off somewhere.

"Well, are you coming?" Souta startled Inuyasha, who was previously deep in thought.

"Where?"

"To get Tsuta's remains. Even an enemy deserves to rest in peace, right? 'Death unifies all', you know."

"Peh," Inuyasha looked in the opposite direction of where Souta was.

"What's with you?! Why haven't you looked at me at all lately? I feel like I'm talking to a tree!"

"What?"

"Does it bother you that much that I look like Tsuta?"

"No, that's not..." Inuyasha turned towards Souta, and there was something about her face, or the light hitting it, or something... anyway, it made Souta's heart skip a beat.

Although you'll never get him to admit something like that. "Gah! What's wrong with you lately?! Stop being so uncharacteristic!" Souta turned and - again, you'll never get him to admit something like this - blushed a bit. 'What's wrong with _me_ lately?'

"It's no use. I'll have to go recover those bones myself," Kaede took off on horseback. Apparently, her magic powers allowed her to locate Urasue the witch on her own.

"I'm coming too!" Souta, with Shippo in tow, sped up next to Kaede on his bicycle. "Hey, Kaede... were Inuyasha and Tsuta... more than just enemies?"

"What else would we be?" Inuyasha suddenly appeared on Kaede's horse.

"Yeah, but..." Souta was sure they weren't telling him something.

As they traveled on, Souta continued thinking. It embarrassed him somewhat, because he thought it was very much like what a girl might think. But still, he didn't have much else to do as they went along. 'Come to think of it, pretty much any time Tsuta is mentioned, she looks different. Like, upset. And sad. Instead of upset and angry. Maybe... maybe she loved him?' It was difficult for Souta to think of Inuyasha being in love, and when he imagined her being cute and loving, he had to bite his lip very hard to keep from laughing.

Shippo noticed, though. "What's wrong with you?"

"It's here," Inuyasha said. It was amazing how she could keep her balance, standing on the back of the back (the butt) of a horse. "That witch's scent."

OoO

Ending on a weird note! Yay! There's just some stuff I feel like leaving out. So we'll meet back up with the group as they attempt to cross the bridge.

Some of you may have been thrown off a bit by where this chapter starts and the last one ended. I went from them jumping in the portal to get the "treasure" and Sesshoko, to hunting down Urasue. Yep. So, the rest of the Sesshoko intro arc was left out, the Nobunaga/Toad Prince, Mayu the ghost girl, the New Moon, Shippo's intro, and possibly another I'm forgetting (I don't know, I can't remember - hence the "forgetting"), were omitted due to a lack of interest on my part, and that I figured there wouldn't be much difference anyway. I also don't have references for what happens in volume 3, so I couldn't write those too well. I usually forget what happens in the series, so I use the manga volumes for reference. Which is why it sometimes sounds dry and closer to the original. Sorry. You can just imagine what happened in the other chapters. And Sesshoko is missing an arm. It's just that Sesshomaru's missing arm was integral to the plot in two spots - his second appearance when he unleashes the Saimyosho, and when **SPOILER ALERT** his arm came back with the Bakusaiga **END ALERT** And hey, why can't a woman be armless? This is the '90s, right?

No it's not. Heh.

I'm not sure, but I might be able to wrap up this arc with one more chapter. It would have to be long, though. In the manga, it's like 4 more chapters, and all of my chapters are about 1 or 2 manga chapters. But if you'll notice, I've been leaving out parts of the story that Souta wasn't there for. That should help make things shorter. Although, when girl-Miroku shows up, we'll be able to see what's going on with others, sometimes.

There are a couple lines in InuYasha Episode 90 "Sota's Brave Confession of Love" that are also in songs. "What is love?" is the one I caught first. I laughed so hard, especially since I'd seen Night at the Roxbury a week earlier. Don't hurt me, no more...

Er... Sorry. I keep ranting like this.

And looking back about two weeks after I wrote this, I really wonder what the heck makes me write this stuff in the author's comments thing.


	11. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

"Wow. I thought rickety old bridges like this only existed in movies." The groups - minus horse and bicycle - had to cross over one of those old, creaky bridges with boards missing, and the remaining boards don't look like they're in good condition either.

"If it's scaring you, why don't you just stay? We don't need your help," Inuyasha was completely unconcerned.

"I'm not scared! Something always happens at the last minute in those movies to save the heroes, while the bad guys plummet to their deaths! If only one of us had a whip and fedora..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Hey, lookit that!" Souta was referring to the group of clay warriors blocking their way on the bridge. "Oh, yeah. I forgot there's always an obstacle." He sighed. "They're gonna end up breaking the bridge, aren't they..."

"They smell like that witch. No matter," Inuyasha iron reavered the group in front. Unfortunately, more filled in for them. Then one of them grabbed Inuyasha's wrist, and Souta turned out to be wrong about who would break the bridge. The witch, appearing from nowhere, cut the ropes, as the four plummeted to their deaths. The end.

Pfft. Sorry.

Well, Souta was carried off by the witch, much to his discomfort, as his companions fell. He figured they'd be alright.

As for himself, he wasn't sure. Especially not when the witch somehow tied him up and stuck him in tub filled with some foul-smelling liquid. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Tsuta, come here," Urasue said. And Souta was startled not only to hear that name, but to be greeted by a man who looked vaguely like himself.

"Yes, this is the great priest Tsuta himself. But in flesh only, I'm afraid. You see, that potion you bathe in is to extract your soul, to be transferred to its rightful place: his body!"

'Damn, what's with all these loonies in the feudal era? Must be the crap they eat... Wait, am I paralyzed? Again?? Shee,' once again, Souta's mind was full of irrelevant thoughts in the face of death - or in this case, having his soul torn out of his body. And he always wonders why Inuyasha never looks upset in the face of death.

"Soon, Tsuta, we shall take the soul from you reincarnation, and-??

"Why won't anyone listen?! I am no one's reincarnation!" Souta exclaimed. Once again, it seemed like he was less paralyzed than he thought. Come to think of it, where did Myoga go?

"Why can you still talk, boy? My herbs should have... Eh? Is that a shard of the jewel?" It seems Urasue had seen through Souta's brilliant hiding place of under his shirt.

"No way in hell, witch!" As Urasue reached for the jewel on Souta, a barrier went up around him and the tub.

The barrier continued to get larger, thoroughly confusing Urasue and making Souta sick. Then, conveniently...

"Souta?" Inuyasha and Kaede arrived on the scene. Shippo has disappeared for a few pages. Er...

"Isha?"

"Tsuta?"

Well, nothing had ever gotten Inuyasha's attention before, that sure did. She saw him... he who "killed" her, an apparent enemy, and maybe something else.

Then a voice only Souta heard started up. 'Don't say my name,' the voice said. 'Don't say my name!'

"Ts-Tsuta..." Inuyasha said. And everything went black for Souta. The shield surrounding him broke, and many balls of light flew out of him, and into Tsuta.


	12. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

"Ah," Urasue said. "The boy held strong 'til you said the name."

As Tsuta began to stumble blindly, Kaede trembled, "You... you used my brother's bones..."

"To create living flesh! Now I will use him as a puppet, to do my bidding!" Urasue exclaimed as Tsuta approached her. "Eh?" Tsuta put his hands on her shoulders, and suddenly a blast of bright light emanated from Tsuta, destroying Urasue.

"You... dragged me out of a death... I had no desire to leave..." Tsuta whispered angrily.

"...Is it really you, Tsuta?" Inuyasha asked, her tone of voice hard to read.

"Inuyasha..." Tsuta turned, looking a bit pained. "Inuyasha... Why did you betray me?" His pained look turned very angry.

"_I_..." Inuyasha looked scandalized, "betrayed _you_?!"

"Why else would I use the rest of my power to subdue you? You said you wanted to become human, and I believed you. But that day we arranged for me to bring you the shikon jewel, you attacked me from nowhere and took the jewel right from my hands. 'Idiot,' you said, 'How could you believe I would ever truly want to become human?' You betrayed me."

Inuyasha was somewhat concerned with Tsuta's account. 'That wasn't me! I never did any of that!'

"This time..." Tsuta took Kaede's bow and took aim with an arrow, "I will make sure you die!"

"Feh... trying to kill me a second time, making up some lie about me..." Inuyasha regained her previous composure - if you could call a constant, slightly irritated expression 'composure' - "you really must hate me."

As Inuyasha and Tsuta were having their little skirmish, and Inuyasha got an opening to get up close to Tsuta, Shippo and Kaede went over to inspect Souta. They managed to pull him out of the tub, but he was still unconscious. Kaede reflected that, unless Tsuta was able to put his hatred to rest, Souta would never wake up.

Inuyasha had grabbed Tsuta's arms, a little below the shoulders. "Look! It doesn't matter to me if you care anymore... but I will not stand by and let you spread lies about me!"

"Lies?" Tsuta's expression was a mixture of questioning and glaring.

"I never did any of that! I never attacked you and stole the jewel from you!"

...Lots of shouting in this chapter...!

"What do you take me for? I know that was you! And... You said you would become human, and with the jewel gone, I would no longer be a priest, but a man... And we would-..."

"I meant every word I said!"

"Like the kappa means every word before he drowns his victims!"

"No!" Inuyasha pressed herself into Tsuta. "I know you never liked to hear me talk like this, but... I know things were hard for you. They were hard for me too, but my blood helped me be strong. But you... didn't have that benefit."

"Inuyasha..." Tsuta closed his eyes, and the spectators thought he might be at peace. But, no. A blast of energy, like the one he used to destroy Urasue, came out and hit Inuyasha. Whether because she was part demon, her cloak protected her, or Tsuta held back a little, Inuyasha was only slightly damaged by the blasts.

"When I died, I despised you, pleased only by the thought that I had killed you. And so long as I live now, I can never be happy so long as you live!"

"Inuyasha! You must destroy that body! It is only made of dirt and clay, and you must free his soul from it!"

As Tsuta prepared to blast Inuyasha once again, Inuyasha prepared to attack but... 'I can't... I can't do it...'

Just as it looked like all hope was lost, Souta surprised everyone by opening his eyes suddenly. Tsuta, then about to deliver a blow, was blasted backwards as a giant mass that appeared to be all soul flew out of him and into Souta. But once the giant mass hit Souta, his eyes closed once again.

However, Tsuta was greatly injured. Inuyasha thought that might have done him in, but then saw him stumbling away. Inuyasha took off after him. Eventually, he came to a cliff - which he couldn't see through the fog - and stumbled and nearly fell. Fortunately, Inuyasha was able to catch his wrist in time.

"Please..." she said, "go back inside Souta. This is not where you belong."

"Are you asking me to die? To return to that boy would..." Tsuta's expression did as it had earlier, turning from pained to angry. "I told you! This time, I'll make sure you die!" Tsuta pulled down the wrist Inuyasha was grasping, while once again expelling energy at her.

The two began to plummet, but Inuyasha was able to grasp a side of the cliff, as Tsuta alone fell an unknown depth - it was too foggy to tell.

Inuyasha climbed up the cliff, limping back to where she left the others. As she moved, she wondered about what Tsuta said, about her ambushing him and stealing the jewel. 'I never once did anything like that to him. Funny how he didn't mention shooting all those arrows at me that same day. But... is it possible... maybe someone was disguised as me and did that? All that trouble, and they never took the jewel... Someone must have an awful grudge against us..." As Inuyasha wrapped up her thoughts, she saw the still unconscious Souta surrounded by Kaede and Shippo.

"What happened to my elder brother?"

'After falling from so high...' "He... I couldn't save him..." Inuyasha looked sad, and tired.

The three turned toward the low moaning sounds coming from the previously silent Souta.

"Gee," said Shippo, "I wonder if he'll be the same when he wakes up..."

"Yes... Having his soul ripped out and pushed back in such a manner... If any trace of my brother remains, there could be trouble..."

Souta sat up, looking quite startled. "Oh... It was all a dream."

"A dream?"

"I didn't know any formulas, and couldn't solve any problems on my math test. I was really freaked out there for a minute. Hey, where's Urasue? And Tsuta? Sheesh, it feels like I've been asleep for a month!"

'I guess we didn't have much to worry about...' Inuyasha smiled to herself.

"So you don't remember anything after you got put in the tub?"

"Nope. Sorry." The four were making their return to the village, and wondered if Souta had remembered feeling anything happen to him.

"Don't be sorry. It's a stupid thing to apologize for," Inuyasha said.

"...What's wrong with you lately?" Souta asked. "I'm still Souta, y'know."

"Yeah... how could I think you had any of Tsuta in you?"

"Then why do you keep looking at me like you want me?" Souta asked innocently enough.

That little question was enough to get a rise out of Inuyasha. "What?! Since when have I - " she asked in her normal angry-voice, turning to Souta.

"Ha! You finally looked me in the eye!" Souta smiled. "I win!"

"What?"

"I like you better angry than mopey," Souta grinned, then hopped on his bike and rode ahead.

As the group continued on their trek back to the village, each had their thoughts. Shippo was glad everyone was okay. Souta was happy he hadn't failed any tests. Kaede wondered about Souta's power, how not even the great power of Tsuta could subdue him.

And Inuyasha... Inuyasha wondered why seeing Souta smile made her so relieved.

OoO

This ending makes me =D!

Shouting! Sorry. There were a lot of "!"s and "..."s in this chapter. Sorry. Er... "That's a stupid thing to apologize for!" eh? Hee hee.

Sorry this chapter was such a long time coming! My published chapters caught up with my unpublished ones, and then I had a case of Writer's Block for a while, and just didn't want to write. So you guys ended up with a longer chapter this week! Yay!

Since Souta was unconscious for most of this chapter, I obviously couldn't write things from his perspective.

The bit about being asleep for a month... I think I wrote chapter 10 about a month before I wrote this. I really don't remember. I guess that's it for this week. I omitted a certain scene to make someone's return a surprise... but you all know he's okay anyway.

Guess who shows up next week! Crap, I have to come up with her name soon.

Revenge is like ice cream: best served cold, with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup or that candy crust stuff on top.

Re-reading this, I realize that Kaede's horse seems to be gone...


	13. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

As she sat and inspected her payment, a small shikon fragment, she was startled to hear voices from nearby.

"Hey, a hot spring! Just what I needed, my feet are killing me!" a youthful male voice called from beyond the boulders in the spring.

Souta, Inuyasha, and Shippo had set off from Kaede's village once again, to continue their search for shikon fragments, and had been lucky enough to come upon a small hot spring. Souta had decided to take the opportunity and relax in said spring - especially since his feet were killing him.

"Don't you want in? I'll leave you alone if you want to soak, too," he told Inuyasha as he eased himself in.

"No," was all Inuyasha, who sat firmly with her back to Souta, said.

"Gee, I thought girls loved baths. Whatever."

"Where are you going?" Inuyasha asked Shippo, who had begun disrobing.

"I'm gonna go in with Souta," Shippo replied.

"...Why?"

"We're friends, and I wanna bathe with him!"

For some reason, this potential situation bothered Inuyasha great deal. "Don't you think he might not want to bathe with a stupid midget like you?"

Shippo chose to ignore that comment, and asked instead, "Just how far have you and Souta gotten, anyway?"

Souta, listening silently in the spring, produced a sound that was a mixture of a cough and dry heave, while Inuyasha was unable to produce any reaction at all.

"I'm not really sure what that means. But why don't you ever go in with Souta? Ma and Pa would always bathe together when they were alive, and I'd join 'em," Shippo said matter-of-factly.

"This is completely different!" Inuyasha proceeded to noogie Shippo.

But the two came running when they heard a very Souta scream from... Souta.

It turned out a monkey had just seriously scared Souta by tapping his shoulder. Souta had also stood up from his fright, and the water level... Well, it didn't cover much, and that "much" it didn't cover was just a bit too much for Inuyasha. Of course, Souta was embarrassed as well.

"Oh, he's traveling with a girl? Aw, well..." the girl finished dressing, not intending to leave herself exposed in a situation such as that. However, she had seen the large shikon fragment the boy wore on his neck - it had to have been almost half the jewel! - and was determined to pursue the group and make the fragment hers.

"Geez, what's your problem? Sad because you didn't get my boxers? You can always just ask," Souta laughed. "But you got to see my naked, right?"

"No!" Inuyasha had refused to look at Souta directly since the night before, and was continuing this practice currently.

Meanwhile, high on a cliff, the girl from before and a very round tanuki observed the group below.

"B-but Lady Kannon... to use such an indirect approach... wouldn't it be easier to use your hand's hell hole?"

"Fool," the girl smiled, "if I use that, they'll all die!"

"You're sure nothing will go wrong?" the tanuki asked.

"Don't worry," the girl reassured him.

The tanuki wasn't sure, but jumped off the cliff and transformed into a giant... thing... and rumbled down the cliff towards our favorite traveling group.

Souta had managed to stay on their cliff, while Inuyasha and Shippo slid down a ways.

"Isha?!" Souta called down. Then he felt a tug on his shirt - a very strong tug, as it pulled him all the way on top of his bicycle. There, he looked up to find a girl perched on his bike seat, with a finger around the string he kept the shikon shard on.

"What the heck?" Souta gave the girl... one of those looks, I can't find the word.

"Fear not, gentle boy," the girl began the pedal the bicycle, "for I am a servant of Buddha and mean you no harm. I merely meant to obtain the shikon fragment, but did not realize you would come with it."

'Man, this is embarrassing,' Souta thought. 'Well,' said a new voice in Souta's head, 'at least no one here really cares.' 'Yeah,' thought the first voice, 'I guess... say, how does she know how to work a bicycle, anyway?'

Souta then noticed an odd rush of wind that had made Inuyasha - Isha - crash into the cliff. "Hey!" Souta thought for a second, then jumped off the bicycle, sliding down the rocks to Inuyasha. "Are you okay?"

"What the hell was that?! Some sort of wind... it felt like that wench was pulling me in somehow!"

"Dangit!" Souta exclaimed.

"Well, it's nothing to get upset about, I'm fine..." Inuyasha scratched her head.

"No, that girl stole my bike!"

"So what?! Who knows where she was taking you?" Inuyasha 'keh'ed.

"Er... Isha..." Souta mumbled.

"Look, it's not like I was worried! Just, a stupid boy like you..."

"She took the jewel shard, too..." Souta said simply.

"WHAT?!"

OoO

Yay, SheRoku! If you didn't catch it, her name is Kannon - which some of you may recognize as the name of the possessed scroll in the "Village of Ogre Women" story arc (the one with the engagement). I put a little research into it, and I could only find two female Bodhisattvas, and the other's name was kind of weird. You may wonder "why a Bodhisattva?" I'll tell you! Miroku is one! Obviously not the Miroku in Inuyasha, but Miroku is the Japanese name for Maitreya, one of the future Buddhas! I'm not sure, but I think he's supposed to be the last one. Yay!

If you missed it, the "just ask for my boxers" thing is a reference to the way earlier chapter where Souta was taking a freezing bath and Inuyasha was digging through his clothes looking for the jewel shard.

...I wonder how hard it's gonna be for me to keep Shippo's gender a mystery.

How 'bout that nickname? I was originally going to have Souta try out a variety of nicknames, but for some reason "Isha" just stuck with me. If this were in Japanese, I think this would indicate some level of rudeness - I think in Japan you only get a nickname when someone has known you a while, not just a few days. Of course, the complete lack of honorifics also indicates a level of impoliteness. I just can't see adding "-kun" to Inuyasha, can you? But "Isha-chan" has a nice sound to it. But I'm not writing in Japanese, right?

...right?

You all got a long chapter again this week! I think I'll try to write longer ones, to a consistent 3 to 4 pages (that's how it comes out on my WordPerfect 11 document, anyway), particularly if I'm not going to be updating every week like I said I would. I don't know, I'm thinking of alternating which story I update each week, in order to keep me sane... any of ya'll got a deviantArt account?

I don't know much about 15th century Japanese Buddhism, and I don't know much about Buddhist nuns, other than: they exist. Or at least, they used to. I think they were pretty rare, but I remember reading a children's book about a Chinese Buddhist nun. She had to shave her head.


	14. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

"Inuyasha, aren't you done yet?" Shippo asked.

"Shut up! There are a lot of different scents here!" Inuyasha was on all fours, sniffing the ground aggressively.

The group of three, after following the trail the jewel thief had taken, had reached a village. Unsure of any possible path the girl had taken, Inuyasha had resorted to simply sniffing her out. Although, as she said, there were many different scents - so it wasn't really simple, then, was it?

"Well, could you hurry it up? There's a crowd gathering," Souta crossed his arms, but stood uneasily. People in the village, on their daily business, had given the group looks of concern and curiosity. Several people had gathered around.

"Demons? In such a populated village?" one man asked.

"See!" Souta was embarrassed.

"Perhaps not the girl and child, but the lad..." one villager said.

"Yes... strange garb..." another said.

"Perhaps he's a foreigner..." one narrowed his eyes.

"What?!" Souta exclaimed.

"Ha!" Inuyasha said, still sniffing.

After somehow getting past the suspicious villagers, Inuyasha had weaved throughout almost the whole village without much luck. Whenever she managed to catch the girl's scent, it was always covered by other scents nearby. Shippo had become bored and went off to chase a chicken, and Inuyasha continued to sniff.

"I don't know... Maybe she's not here anymore..." Souta said.

"Shut up! She's gotta be!" Inuyasha exclaimed without looking up.

"But why would a jewel thief be hanging around in a village like this?"

"Look, I didn't spend three hours crawling and sniffing on the ground for no reason, all right?! She's gotta be here!"

"But..." Then Souta noticed it. "My bike!"

This made Inuyasha look up. "Hm? Hey... maybe she's in there," she suggested, almost like it was more brilliant than it actually was.

"Yeah... I - hey!" Souta was interrupted by his noticing that Inuyasha had walked over to the building his bike was leaning on, and she was about to just bust in. 'Not without me!' Souta said to himself, running over.

Inuyasha slammed the sliding doors open, pleasantly surprising the girl inside.

"Oh it's you!" In the blink of an eye, she was by Souta. "'From heaven to hell', the great Buddha writes. My spirits soar!"

Souta, who found his hands had somehow come to be gripping the girl's hands, asked, "Er... what are you doing in here?" Souta was a bit unnerved, as the room was full of little boys, and he really hoped he'd never have to deal with a weirdo like the kind he was thinking of.

"Eh? Oh, I asked to see the young men of the village. It seems their oldest is only nine years. Alas, this war of ours..." the girl sighed.

"That didn't really answer my - " Souta was cut off by Inuyasha, who suddenly took a swipe at the girl's back.

The girl miraculously knew it was coming, and ducked. "My, my," she said.

"Look... I'd say you've had your chance to make your amends peacefully..." Inuyasha said, flexing her fingers.

"Hmph," the girl said, pulling the jewel shard up, "this is not something a demon should possess."

"Says you!" Inuyasha lunged, but the girl jumped out of the building and ran. "Hey! Come back here!" Inuyasha followed.

"I did not wish to fight pointless battles," the girl said simply.

"Fine! I'll give you a point!" Inuyasha unsheathed Tetsusaiga and swung to deliver what would have been a fatal blow... but the sword was blocked by the staff the girl carried. This surprised Inuyasha, who thought it to be made only of ordinary wood. 'This is no ordinary nun...' "What in seven hells are you?" Inuyasha rested her sword on her shoulder.

"My name is Kannon. I use my spiritual powers to serve the weak and needy."

"Aw, save it for the fools, thief!" Inuyasha shouted back.

"You insult me, Isha," Kannon said.

"Don't you call me that!" Inuyasha paused for a minute, thinking through facts. "How do you know that, anyway?"

"Your handsome companion called you by that name earlier."

"Aw, gee..." Souta scratched his head in embarrassment. "You know, I don't think she's all that bad..." he smiled a bit.

Shippo, who had recently returned from chicken chasing, said from atop Souta's shoulder, "Get your head out of the clouds! She's a thief, remember?"

"Peh..." Inuyasha scoffed. "I'll make sure you never tell another lie again!" and once again lunged with the Tetsusaiga.

OoO

Eh... not a particularly good place to leave off... Once again, I'm omitting the fight sequence, for two reasons: 1)I don't want to write a fight sequence, and 2)It won't be different at all from the one in the manga/anime. Except the fighters are girls. Everything else is the same.

So, when we return, we will find Souta and Kannon in collision! Yay!

This chapter only covered about 12 pages of manga. The last chapter covered several chapters. 12 pages is like 4/5 of a chapter. Wow. How do I do it? Weird.

Oh! Just so you know, Kannon was not going to engage in sexual intercourse with those little boys! Miroku in canon had asked for the finest women in the village, and here Kannon simply asks for young men. See, she and her man-chasing ways are at a huge disadvantage during this period in time. See, there's a war going on, and all the able-bodied men who aren't noblemen or demons are off fighting. This is why you only ever see little boys or old men in the villages in InuYasha. But poor Kannon likes men so much, she keeps trying to find some guys... but no one seems to catch her drift anyway, and I think they just assume she wants to teach them religion or something. Whatever. But Kannon knows it's inappropriate to do anything of that nature with... well, any boy younger than Souta, so is as disappointed an reluctant as Miroku with unattractive women.

Guess that's it for this week. I'm fighting with whether I'll include the "ink hell painter" or whatever story arc that comes after the Miroku intro arc.


	15. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

After... sort of exchanging blows for a while, Kannon pulled out her secret weapon. She uncovered her hand and stuck her palm out to face her opponent. Inuyasha, the various unlookers, and several unlucky horses were startled to find a sudden, impossibly strong wind pulling everything towards Kannon... and into her palm!

Inuyasha, clever as ever, decided she would just hack off Kannon's arm, strange hand power and all. Souta, who was not faced with possible imminent death and thus was thinking more relevant, helpful thoughts, instead came up with... something of a really stupid idea.

He jumped right in the wind's path. Inuyasha, realizing this, exclaimed "What are you - ?!"

But just as it seemed Souta would be sucked to who knows where via Kannon's Wind Tunnel, Kannon quickly covered the strange weapon, stopping the vacuum. Souta, adhering to one of Newton's Laws, remained in motion, and collided with Kannon.

As Inuyasha withdrew her sword and came running to where Souta had landed, Souta pondered. 'She sealed her hand of her own accord... she really isn't so bad after all...' And as is often the case with Souta, but more often in more dangerous situations, something registered in his brain. "Ah! I'm so sorry, ma'am!" he exclaimed, scooting off the young lady and onto the ground.

"Did you... jump in the way on purpose?" Inuyasha asked.

"Listen..." Souta was kneeling on the ground next to Kannon, "if Kannon had used that hand of hers, she could have killed us a lot earlier."

"So?"

"I'm sure she's got a nice reasonable side, and we could just - yah!"

Inuyasha had been looking on with curiosity as Kannon silently lifted her hand and gave Souta's tush a nice pinch. She didn't know quite what to make of it, but it startled Souta quite a bit.

"What kind of nun are you??" Souta had done one of those hops people do while sitting.

Once everyone had calmed down, they sat and talked, giving Kannon a chance to explain herself.

"I am gathering the shards of the jewel in order to kill a demon named Naraku," she said.

"'Infernal abyss'?"

"This hole in my hand was cut as a result of Naraku's curse."

"What kind of demon is this 'Naraku?'" Souta asked.

"Well... um..."

"You don't know?"

"Well, it was actually my grandfather Miyatsu who fought Naraku. It was nearly fifty years ago, and his battle with Naraku raged for many years. Every time they met, Naraku took on the form of some different mortal. During their last encounter, Naraku took on the form of a beautiful courtesan, and my grandfather, although skilled with incredible spiritual powers... well..."

"I think we get the picture."

"Right, well, Naraku pierced my grandfather's hand with a sealing scroll, and escaped his grasp forever. But he left a message: 'The hellhole I have opened in your hand shall ultimately swallow you. It will be passed on to your children, and to your children's children... so long as I live, the curse shall remain.'" A bitter pause was followed by Kannon's continuation, "Every year the winds in my hand grow stronger, and with them, the hole grows larger... in another few years, I will be swallowed by the hole, just as my grandfather and my father were."

"Oh... you mean you'll die?" Souta, like many people, was uncomfortable with tender topics like these.

"Yes. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared, but it is a fate I have long resigned myself to. But I cannot rest as long as I know Naraku is still alive. Especially now, since the Shikon Jewel has returned to this world. Naraku will surely try to gather the shards and increase its powers. You see, I've heard that it nearly did come in possession of the shikon jewel, fifty years ago... It is said to have slain the priest guarding the jewel, and - " Kannon was interrupted by a sudden outburst from Inuyasha.

"It slew a priest?!" Recalling the information revealed earlier, that someone in the guise of Inuyasha had attacked Tsuta... 'It had to be Naraku...' "You said it takes different forms, right? What form does it have now?"

"How would I know?" Kannon replied. "Besides, don't you think if I knew I would've tracked it down already?"

"If we keep gathering shards, we're bound to run into Naraku eventually, right?" Souta pulled up his shard necklace.

"Wait, when did you get that back?" Kannon was confused and impressed at once.

"Why don't we work together? Isha's not gonna let me hand this over to anyone, right?"

"But I've never been good at working with others..."

"Neither is Isha. Besides, you'll die soon if Naraku isn't defeated, right?"

"...Are you concerned for my welfare, Lord... er... Sorry, did I ever catch your name?" Kannon asked.

"Souta, and um, I guess, yeah..."

"Then can I bear your child?" Kannon asked, completely straight-faced and serious.

Souta's expression was indescribable. "Um... bwuh...?"

"Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?" Inuyasha asked, stewing sarcasm and a bit of anger.

"Ah, you see, in the event that I am unable to defeat Naraku, it is essential that I pass on an heir," Kannon explained calmly.

"What happens if you die while carrying your heir?" Inuyasha asked, a look of contempt and sarcasm glazing her face.

"At least I'll have a bit of fun beforehand, eh?" Kannon smiled.

It might be too much to say that Inuyasha was scandalized by this comment, but she was certainly irked. "Look, if you so much as touch Souta again..."

"Oh, of course, I understand, if he's your man..."

"Look, you! Souta is just a shard detector! That's all!"

"That's right. Inuyasha's already got herself a boyfriend," Souta turned, playfully angry. Although it would be lying to say he didn't believe that. "You know, you could learn a thing or two from Kannon! She actually acts like a girl."

"What good are you?!" Inuyasha and Souta had begun another of their pointless arguments.

"Young men are a rare find, you mustn't treat yours so badly!" Kannon scolded Inuyasha.

Shippo, eating fruit in a tree overlooking the scene, thought, 'How are these people ever going to work together?'

OoO

Sorry it's been a while. I actually wrote this chapter about a month ago, just with Christmas and all...

I don't think I'll do the cursed hell ink painter storyline. Its only purpose is to join Miroku/Kannon with the group and give another jewel shard, really. There's not much of a story difference... kind of like this chapter... really boring, eh? At least the end was okay. It was like one manga chapter, too. Stupid conversations...

But, hey, guys... if I don't do the ink painter, guess who's up next... that's right... Sesshoko's glorious return! Yay! And that means Naraku shows up! Yay! And that means Souta will go back to the modern era for some reason... Meaning we'll get to see female Hojo, and all of Souta's weird friends! Yay! That'll be a great chapter. *maniacal laughter*

I almost referred to Tsuta as a "priestess" here... That's just what I get for reading the manga word for word while typing this. That's also why you should PROOFREAD. So weird gender-confusion things like that don't happen. Although apparently even with my constant proofreading, I've still missed gender-confused pronouns. ...

Kannon's impregnation line was **EDIT: **A major thanks to The Weird Shipper for providing me with now seemingly obvious line "Can I bear your child?" I tell ya, that's a lot better than what I had in there before. I don't know _why_ I didn't think of it. Anyway, thanks!

Let's see, volume 8's got Kikyo again... what else happens in that volume? Oh yeah, Souta's return from the modern era, and the gang's first meeting with Naraku! V9's got the Peach Man (which I'm totally doing, if only for the naked scene, and I guess because Isha hasn't had her human phase this fanfiction yet). I think Sango also shows up in v9... yay... MaleSango (Kohaku in here) doesn't have much of a personality in my mind. Isha's got her occasionally calm, frequently angry and sarcastic wild-woman stuff, Souta's got his sense of humor but gets pretty upset about stuff, Kannon's got the smarts and the drinky sitcom bachelorette hunger for men, Shippo's got... um... the occasional smart comment, I guess, but Kohaku in this fic has... I don't know. Even barely appeared Sesshoko has a personality developed. I think of her like a bitchy version of Zakuro from Tokyo Mew Mew. I can kind of see her like Heather from Total Drama Island, too.

How many people actually read this part, anyway?


	16. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

"Wow! Feels like so long since I slept inside, on a real bed!" Souta said happily, in between bites of his nice dinner.

"Because I always make you sleep outside, right?" Inuyasha said, leaning on the wall.

"Well, it's not like you force me to. It's just that I don't ever have much of a choice."

"There, now that's all settled..." Kannon's voice drifted from the hallway as she entered the room.

"Cool. You get that demon exorcized, Lady Kannon?" Souta said with his mouth full of rice.

"Uh-huh!" Kannon smiled.

"And isn't it convenient that the finest house in the village happened to have a demon in it, one that only you can sense," Inuyasha glared.

"Yes, it is convenient, isn't it!" Kannon continued to smile.

As Inuyasha began twitching in anger, Shippo asked, "You've been making it up this whole time?"

"Well, you see, Shippo..."

Much as Souta would like to have heard this explanation, he was distracted as he suddenly sensed a jewel shard. He told the others this immediately, as well as the information that it was traveling towards them very quickly, and it was accompanied by a demon aura. He didn't pass this along, but he felt like he had encountered it before.

The group rushed outside, and saw huge mass rumbling towards them. Both the creature and the light outside was too dark to tell what it was, but it was easy to see the little white spot on it. It, as well as the following adverb, was wiltingly familiar.

Indeed, as the big creature and white thing came closer and closer, Souta and Inuyasha confirmed their suspicions.

'Sesshoko is alive?' Inuyasha was speechless. She was sure that blow to the arm she gave Sesshoko earlier would have killed her, yet here she was.

Inuyasha was too clouded by anger and confusion to notice what Souta, as well as Miroku and Shippo, saw - although those two would have thought nothing of it - that Sesshoko appeared to have two arms. Souta remembered that when Inuyasha and Sesshoko had fought before, the last thing that happened was that Inuyasha had sliced Sesshoko's front left limb - it was a leg as she was in dog form at the time, but in human form it was her arm. And yet, there she was with both arms.

One of the voices in Souta's head commented on how he was thinking something relevant for once.

Before anyone could do or say anything, Sesshoko hopped down from the giant ogre and landed right in front of Inuyasha in the blink of an eye. Inuyasha, feeling her personal space being violated and hoping to avoid being in a direct attack range, hopped backwards. Kannon and Shippo intuitively sensed danger and ran behind and rock, and Souta, not wishing to be involved in a girl fight - just yet - went with them.

"What do you want, Sesshoko?!" Inuyasha exclaimed.

"It isn't obvious? I've come for a sword," Sesshoko said simply.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?"

"A... friend of hers?" Kannon asked Souta.

"Nope. Sister. And she's full-demon. She went after Inuyasha's sword before, but was repelled by its force field thing. I guess she's stubborn," Souta explained.

As Souta was talking, Inuyasha and Sesshoko had begun fighting, and the three spectators looked up when they saw Sesshoko grab Inuyasha's wrist and stop the attack completely. The three were a bit too far out of range to hear Sesshoko's low, calm voice, but they could tell she was saying something. They were also able to see something that alarmed them all, especially Souta: Inuyasha's wrist, where Sesshoko held it, was melting.

After apparently exchanging words, Inuyasha then attacked Sesshoko with the tetsusaiga, despite having a slightly melted arm. Sesshoko then pulled up her fur, which extended and knocked the sword out of Inuyasha's hands.

Souta took a second and wondered, 'What the heck is that fluffy thing?! Did you see it stretch!' [go go gadget fluff?]

Inuyasha ran for her sword, but Sesshoko made it first. Grasping the sword - to the shock of Souta, who remembered she was repelled by the magic force field several chapters ago - she picked it up and swung its now transformed self at her sister. "Jaken," said Sesshoko, turning towards the green spot on the ogre.

The imp said something, and a minute later a giant horde of minor demons came swarming from the mountains.

"Now learn from your elders. With just one swing," Sesshoko readied the sword, "one can slay one hundred demons!" and she did just that.

From the shocked peanut gallery, Kannon said, "Not just the demons, the whole mountain..."

"So now you see what this sword is capable of. And now it's your turn to feel its power..." Sesshoko said.

"Hmph. Never," Inuyasha was filled with a glaring determination.

"Shoot!" Souta got up and ran to block Inuyasha from Sesshoko's blows.

"What're you -?"

"Hm? Oh, the boy from before. You came to die with her? How perfectly wretched," Sesshoko smiled like a... like a... seasick crocodile.

"Geh?"

"Idiot, Sesshoko wouldn't think twice about killing someone like you," Inuyasha moved in front of Souta.

And Kannon moved in front of Inuyasha. "Souta, really, don't you know to not involve yourself in the quarrels of women?"

"Would you go away?!" Inuyasha, ever fearless, was very upset at having her place usurped by her companions.

"But how will you survive without me?" Kannon asked innocently.

A minute or so later, Jaken called from his perch, "Leave these vermin to me, m'lady. There's no need to waste your time on the likes of them."

"True enough. I leave them to you."

The ogre's gigantic hand came to crush the group to jelly, when Kannon pulled out her hand-y (lolpun) weapon.

The group was too busy - Souta being impressed by Kannon, Kannon sucking in that large load, and Inuyasha being jealous - to notice that Sesshoko had pulled out a small hive and unleashed it. But they did notice, however, that the hive opened, and countless giant wasps flew out. And Kannon was most disturbed to find them flying willingly into her hand, and worst of all, that they seemed to be poisoning her at once...

OoO

Yay ending on a weird note again!

I'M SO SORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG! I've had writer's block, like I said. Plus, I usually write this on the weekend, and I've been playing the Sims 2 all weekend since January. So... sorry...

In other news, Rumiko Takahashi's new series is set to debut the end of April 2009! I'm excited. Nothing's been revealed at the time I'm writing other than its premiere date. I've heard the adinuyasha group will probably be doing the scanlations - and by heard, I mean I read it on the adinuyasha website. Yeah.

Anyway, I'll try to keep up the chapters more...

Also, there's been an overwhelming number of votes on my poll for how long this story should go! (By which I mean 3 votes total). All said I should go all the way to chapter 558. Phew, that'll be a lot of chapters. Probably I'll lose interest before then. But, hey! You know. It's just fanfiction. :) you'll survive. This is chapter 15... I'll split the fanfiction into parts, by the way. Like, once it gets to some amount of chapters here, I'll end it and make a new one - part two! This is just so I don't have a 200 chapter fanfiction on my hands. I mean, honestly, who'd go for that? No one, that's who. Did I say any of this in a previous chapter?

Is the story sounding too much like a word-for-word from the manga or anime? I guess I mean the Viz translation... since it's not in Japanese or... any other official language of the countries that people are from who've read this.

=D


	17. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

Souta sighed on his way to school. He couldn't explain how he'd been feeling ever since his forced exit through the well the day before. There he'd been, so worried about Ish...Inuyasha and her gaping abdominal wound, and she had the nerve to push him down the well, trapping him in his own time. It wasn't bad enough he'd been pushed, pushed by a GIRL, but he couldn't seem to get back through the well, and he had no idea why.

Since there was nothing he could do about the feudal era then, he decided he might as well go to school. He wore navy blue pants and a white button-down shirt, as his school uniform was rather bloody, and those were the closest things he had to his uniform.

"Hey! Souta!" he heard a voice call from behind.

"Oh... hi, guys," Souta said, turning to his three modern-day pals.

"Long time no see! You get over your rheumatism?" Yoshi said in his typical jocular manner.

"Rheumatism? I thought it was beri-beri," Daisuke said.

"I heard it was rubella. Where's your uniform?" Ken, the air-headed one, said.

"Oh... my uniform was kinda... bloody..." Souta, not wanting to talk more about it, and also marveling at the lies his grandpa told his friends, said.

"Ew."

"Does rheumatism really do that?" It was hard to tell if Daisuke was being serious sometimes.

Souta continued to mull over what happened the previous day, with... Inuyasha (his stubborn side refused to call her by any nickname afterwards).

'I was so worried, but...' His mind went to how Inuyasha had clutched him, only to grab the shikon shard and shove him down the well. 'Unless she -!' Souta thought perhaps Inuyasha had only held him that way to let down his guard so she could take the jewel. "Oh, that can't be it!" he said, standing.

"...Higurashi, stand in the hall," the teacher said, not amused.

'That was the first time a girl's ever touched me that way... I mean, she _is_ a girl, right? She _is_ half-human...' Souta continued pondering in the hall.

Over the next three days, Souta continued being mopey and depressed. His friends did notice, but didn't want to say anything. They thought it might be his various illnesses, and didn't want to bother him about it.

One day, during P.E., Souta was standing around with his friends while some of the other boys were playing soccer. The girls were playing baseball, and one of them took Souta's immobility as the chance she'd been waiting for.

"Souta!" Daisuke snapped Souta back into reality. "Ibuki Hojo from Class B wants to talk to you."

"Gee, what the hell've you been thinking about, Souta? Spacing off a lot lately," Ken folded his arms.

Ibuki Hojo bounded over. "Hi, Souta..." she said shyly. "I'd heard you were feeling better, and I wondered if... um..." While Ibuki blushed in stereotypical feminine, anime way, Ken, Daisuke, and Yoshi looked on curiously. "Maybe you'd like to see a movie... this Saturday?" she looked up hopefully.

"Oh, um..." Knowing how impatient Inuyasha always was, Souta though it was likely she would come back to get him. But it had already been four days since...

"If you're not feeling well, then..." The expression on Ibuki's face was an odd mixture of suspicion, shyness, and demure disappointment.

"Gee, Souta, how could let down a cute girl like her?" Yoshi pulled Souta aside.

"You've been so spacey lately..." Ken joined them. "You don't already have a girlfriend, do you?"

"Yeah! And you've been seeing her all this time while your grandpa lies to us about you being sick!" Daisuke put in excitedly.

Souta flinched at that - it was very close to the truth. "Look, I don't have a girlfriend!"

"So...?"

"Right! I'll go out with you!" Souta turned stubbornly to Ibuki.

Her expression changed immediately. "All right! That's awesome! See ya!" and she bounded back to Left Field.

"Man... that Hojo chick sure is cute. Lucky," Yoshi folded his arms.

"Ha ha, yeah. I wish there was any girl interested in _me_," Ken smiled.

Souta sighed as Daisuke said, "Any girl would be great at this point. Well, there's always high school."

Then the gym teacher reprimanded them for standing around chatting during class.

Then it was Saturday.

"You don't seem very excited for a guy going on his first date," Kagome said. She and Mrs. Higurashi, and Buyo, and come to see Souta off.

"Well..." It's true, Souta wasn't very excited. Ibuki was a nice girl, very friendly, but she just wasn't... "After all I've been through in the feudal era, a date just doesn't seem all that exciting to me," he grinned falsely.

"Well, just make sure you perk up before you meet up with this girl," Mrs. Higurashi smiled.

"Yeah..." As Souta was leaving, he spotted the well-house. It was stupid, but he went into it and jumped in the well. Of course he still couldn't travel through it, but he shouted into it, perhaps believing his irritated message would at least travel in his place. "Listen! I'm going on a date! With a girl! A nice girl! So don't bother coming for me! Because I'll be on a date!"

'Man, that was stupid,' Souta mentally glared at himself as he left the shrine grounds. 'Seriously, what were you - ah?' He turned and ran back to the well. "A shikon shard? Here? Does that mean-?!" But although Souta had sensed the presence of a jewel shard from the direction of the well, when he got there, there was no sign of anything or anybody. 'That's weird... I could've sworn... Must've just been my imagination, I guess.' Souta didn't quite believe it had all been in his head, but he had no evidence to the contrary, so off to his date with Ibuki he went.

They met at the local WacDonard's - which is the most bizarre thing to type - and enjoyed lovely WacDonard's products. Souta had a WacRib sandwich, and Ibuki had some WacNuggets with the newest beverage, the WacCafé.

"Souta?" Ibuki leaned forward.

Souta, who had still been thinking grudgingly about Inuyasha and the well, was jolted into paying attention to his date. "Uh, yes?"

"Well, it's just... you've been really... out of it today, and I was thinking... isn't there someplace you should be?"

This caused Souta to think of the feudal era again. "Uh, wh-where else would I-?"

"You shouldn't have forced yourself to go out with me today when you're still not feeling well!" Ibuki said emphatically.

Souta fell out of his chair. 'Not feeling well... Her wounds were so bad... Maybe she never came back for me because... No, she can't be dead!' Souta hoisted himself up using the table. "Uh, listen, Ibuki... My, uh, chest is starting to hurt..."

"Just as I thought. I'll walk home with you."

"No, no, I'll be fine!" The two went outside the WacDonard's. With a wave, Souta ran off, saying "Let's just try this again some other time, 'kay?"

Souta ran all the way back the shrine, up all this steps, and into the well-house, leaping into the well. 'Just like I thought! There is a jewel shard nearby! I can only sense it, but... ooh, I've gotta find it!' Souta began digging through all the dirt in the bottom of the well, digging frantically like a crazy person, on his hands and knees. A part of him told him it was useless, that he would dig all the way to America and not find anything, but still he dug. 'I have to know if Inu- if Isha's all right!'

Suddenly his hand grasped something. It was small, but larger than a marble, smooth, round on one side but bumpy and jagged on the other. And at the very instant his hand clasped it, he felt that very same magic rush of blue air he only felt when he traveled through time in the well. 'The jewel shard?' was Souta's last thought before landing.

"Souta!" Shippo cried, leaping into his arms.

"Shippo!" 'I-I did it! I made it back!' Souta's indescribable feelings of having made it back to his second home were almost immediately interrupted by a shuffling and growling from an overhead tree. 'What the heck's a tree doing in the well, anyway?'

Meanwhile, Inuyasha, currently fighting wolves and Saimyosho with Kannon, was quite startled to find she smelled Souta again - Souta, who she had pushed off to keep safe, had somehow returned...

OoO

I always end on such weird notes in this fanfiction!

Another big skip, in case you hadn't noticed. I figured out the problem I'm having with writer's block! It's Sesshoko! I remember I had this problem with her intro arc, where I skipped several volumes, ignoring the conclusion. Here, I did the same, but I only skipped a couple chapters. I just wanted to get to school faster! :)

Right. Souta's school-chums. I know I originally had different names for the three boys, and those names sounded sort of like male forms of canon Kagome's friends' names (Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi). But I'd forgotten what those were, so they have these names instead (Ken, Yoshi, and Daisuke). They don't have any real significance, they're just random, generic Japanese boys names. Oh, two of them were supposed to be the names of Ranma's friends in Ranma ½, but I'd forgotten what those were (I think one is Hiroshi... rhymes with Yoshi). Then there's Hojo-chan. It's not clear, in my opinion, in the manga if Hojo is his given name or family name. But given the second movie, it would seem that Hojo is the family name, dating back half a millennia, a family with remarkable resemblance. ...So I just had to come up with a given name for our Miss Hojo. I tried a few I could think of, and none of them sounded good with Hojo. Finally I was just like "You know, she doesn't show up that much anyway." Ibuki. I thiiiiiink that's the name of Kyoko's niece in Maison Ikkoku. Ha ha, what's next? Shinobu Higurashi? Wait, that's not an obscure enough reference.

...So, Rumiko Takahashi's new series, Kyokai no Rinne is out! Hooray! It's being put out nearly simultaneously in Japanese and English. It seems pretty good so far. I mean, there's only a couple chapters, but I'm already in love with Rinne. Heh... I love hapless guys, jerks, and red-heads. :) Not all together, though.

By the way, I got a new name for Momiji. I'll go through later and change Momiji to the new name - Tsuta - and mention the name-change when he shows up again - which should be fairly soon. Just fyi.

**Note: Chapter 17 will be up eventually. I've been busy with graduating high school, moving furniture, both my computers went out of commission, and I had to train to face the Elite Four. Anyway, it's partway written. **I just need to get motivated.

But yeah, the power cord for my laptop is busted, and the CD drive on my Dell PC won't go back in. Kind of a problem.


	18. Chapter 17

Surprise!

CHAPTER 17

"What the heck's going on?" Souta asked.

"Souta... Inuyasha's wounds haven't healed yet, and she's fighting a terrible demon!" Shippo said with concern.

'Haven't healed? I was afraid of that.' Souta sighed, then said with determination, "Shippo, we're getting out of here!"

"But-" Shippo was cut off as a three-eyed wolf emerged from the tree, ready to devour the two at the bottom of the well.

But this potential feeding frenzy was abruptly halted as the tree was raised, apparently out of the well. Somewhat puzzled, the two continued to sit in the bottom, until Souta decided it was probably safe to crawl out of the well. Upon climbing out, the first thing Souta spotted was: "I... Inu..." Caught up in emotions, Souta ran towards Inuyasha.

Who promptly said, "You stupid...! Why did you come-" Finding herself in the arms of a very emotional teenage boy, Inuyasha was left speechless, and flustered. After all, being embraced by an occasionally slightly schizophrenic but basically nice teenage boy who just appeared out of nowhere was not something she had experienced often in the past.

"I was afraid you'd died! You didn't come to get me!"

"Didn't I say... **Why** did you come back?" Inuyasha had pushed Souta back into his world for a reason, and was quite upset to see Souta had ruined her somewhat well-thought-out plans by having returned somehow.

"Shee - I wanted to see you, is all!" Souta said indignantly. "And you! _You_ never wanted to see me at all! You stubborn...!"

"What? I never said that at all! You're so annoying!" Inuyasha spat.

As the pair of fools stood bickering, their friends stood by. "Aw, they're at it again! Right when Souta came back, too!" Shippo complained from atop Kannon's shoulder.

She replied, "No, Shippo. They're making up. Perhaps you will understand when you're older," giving the young kitsune a wise smile. Kaede, however, was distracted by the sudden calm of the area, with the unexplained disappearance of the wasps that endanger Kannon's life, and she commented as such.

"Now that you mention it, it is rather odd..." Kannon looked around, her guard up once again.

But however hard Kannon and Kaede looked and reached out their senses, trying to discover the reason for the loss of wasps, they would fail. Indeed, the cause was currently hiding, unseen to all, and wondering the identity of the young man who had appeared, and his resemblance to the priest known as Tsuta...

Until Souta turned and suddenly realized, "There's someone with a lot of shards over there!"

Inuyasha immediately sprang into action, and prevented this person from fleeing as he had intended. "Hmph. I thought you'd be here. You're Naraku, aren't you?" she said, her voice brimming with contempt. The baboon-suited man made no response. "So before I kill you, I'd like to know... what exactly is it you have against me and Tsuta?" Inuyasha flexed her clawed fingers menacingly.

"Well, if you really want to know..." Naraku said, with a voice like none anyone had heard before. It was strange; cold, malevolent, haughty, and like so many voices and yet no voices at once. "Yes... I suppose you cannot die happily without knowing the reason behind your torment." He paused momentarily as Souta and Kaede joined the group. "Ah, Kaede! Time has not been kind to you, I see," he smiled, in an ugly sort of way.

"You know me? Then it's true..." Kaede narrowed her eyes.

"You must be Onigumo, that bandit Tsuta was taking care of!" Inuyasha nearly growled.

"Ha ha! Indeed! And Naraku came into existence in Onigumo's cave, what is it now, fifty years ago. And I have Tsuta to thank, in part, for that!" Naraku said, to the shock and curiosity of the onlookers. "You see, Tsuta was known far and wide for his great powers. But these powers had already begun to wane by the time Onigumo came into his care. And it reached the point where he was no longer powerful enough to defend an injured man against even the weakest of demons. And do you know _why_ this is, Inuyasha?" Naraku's voice was sounding oddly gleeful at this point. "Because he had fallen in love with a worthless half-demon, and lowered himself to the state of a mere mortal! And Onigumo, who felt certain feelings toward Tsuta," (?) "was quite displeased by this. And these feelings for the priest only simmered and stewed inside him, until a great horde of demons were drawn to him. He allowed them to take his body in order to give him the power to steal the shikon jewel, as well as Tsuta... and the demons and Onigumo became one, and thus, **I** was born."

Hooray for plot exposition! ...Sorry...

"So Onigumo..."

"Was devoured on the spot, body and soul," Naraku said, giving that horrible smile once more. As Souta reflected, it was odd, knowing this Naraku was making ugly, evil facial expressions, even though only his mouth and chin were visible.

"You... Naraku," Inuyasha said, rage almost visibly boiling off her, "why did you ensnare us, Tsuta and me?"

"What, you can't figure it out? Tsuta was the one who guarded the shikon jewel, and the jewel is so much better when tainted with deceit and malice. To think one had been betrayed by who you hold most dear... what better way to taint the jewel? And the deeper the love, the more powerful the betrayal, and the deeper the tainting..."

Souta, filled with mixed feelings at this point, wanted very much to tell Naraku to stop saying forms of the word "taint", but thought better of it.

"All I needed was for Tsuta to put his utmost desire into the jewel shard. What I needed was for him to wish that he alone would survive the battle with his former love. I waited and waited, but it never came. Oh, no, instead he took his injuries for what they were and took the shikon jewel with him to the grave..."

'He chose to follow Isha into death rather than keep himself alive? Wow...'

"Thanks to him, the jewel slipped out of my grasp, when I almost had it! All thank to a filthy half-breed named Inuyasha... What a fool," Naraku sneered.

"You..." Inuyasha was clenching her jaw so hard her exceptionally long canines had pierced her skin, "_You're_ calling _Tsuta_ a fool? You die now!"

Inuyasha jumped and aimed a blow for Naraku, but he was took quick for her. She did manage to shred his baboon-skin cloak, but landed no damage on Naraku's person. He jumped out of the way and landed safely back down a few second later - I guess he couldn't land somewhere out of the grasp of his enemies?

"Heh heh... Kannon the nun, eh? You look so much like your grandfather, with that dissipated face..." Naraku laughed, shielding his own face with his kimono sleeve.

"You leave my face out of this!"

"Shut up! I'll kill you!" Inuyasha once again lunged for Naraku, who promptly emitted a sort of evil flaming gas - and it's anyone's guess why he didn't just do that earlier - and yes, it does indeed say evil flaming gas in this sentence. Sorry.

The miasma, as it were, temporarily shielded Naraku and Inuyasha from the view of the companions.

"It's... melting everything..." Kannon said, looking on with interest. Then some of the... evil flaming gas... jumped out, like a sparking ember in a fireplace. "Get back everyone!" Kannon called, taking her own advice.

"Where's Inuyasha?" Souta said, his concern almost making him step back into the miasma. (A/n: I'm really sorry for interrupting, but I really have no idea what to call it. It's like a miasma fire thing. Again, sorry.)

But although Kaede, Shippo, Souta, and Kannon could not see them, they could hear Inuyasha and Naraku.

And after what seemed an eternity but was really less than five minutes, the (last time) evil flaming gas dissipated, leaving only Inuyasha, sword drawn, and cloak eaten, looking up at the sky. Naraku had fled.

Skipping stuff that you already know happens:

Later on, back at Kaede's village, Inuyasha, whose fire-rat robe was busy magically mending itself, was sitting in a tree, reflecting on things that deserve reflecting.

"Man, how rude! You fought so hard to get back here from your own world just to see her, and she's off sulking in a tree!" Shippo whined from atop Souta's shoulder. But Souta knew Inuyasha meant nothing rude by it. She would only be remembering Tsuta. He started walking to a place he knew well. "Huh? Souta, where ya goin'?" Shippo called from the fence.

"Nowhere, just walking..." Souta said. He was going back to the well. Apart from his emotions concerning all that had happened that day, he had also realized he hadn't even told his family he had gone back, and if he was going to go back to traveling in the dusty old feudal era, he'd like to change out of his nice but flimsy date clothes.

As he swung his legs over wood surrounding the well, a voice he knew too well by now said uncertainly, "Are you... leaving already?"

"Huh?" Souta turned to face her.

"Are you going to come back again?" Inuyasha said.

Souta was a bit surprised. He had never seen Isha this way before, with that expression on her face, so shy and nervous and... feminine.

"It's just, you know... you can stay, if you want. I mean, I thought... I thought it'd be better if you weren't here, that you'd be better off away, but, um... when I saw you, I realized that I... that you should stay."

So many things, so many ideas, so many words all came flooding to Souta at once, he wasn't at all sure what to say or do. Going through them all, he found many he liked but would never say or do, at least not then. Finally, after a silence, he found one word that thought worked very well. Souta looked right at Inuyasha, smiled, and said, "Yeah."

**A/N:**

So, um, funny story. I hit sort of a writer's block when I started college in 2009. It was hard for me to write at school, with no good computer, and none of my volumes of Inuyasha.

The funny thing I'm specifically referring to is, I've been working on and off on a chapter for this story for like two years. And I only figured out last week that the chapter I've been working on is the one AFTER this one. Chapter 16 was the last chapter uploaded on here in, what, 2009? And this chapter has been done since… October 2009. I seriously thought I uploaded this already. So, um… sorry. ^^

I _do_ have every intention of finishing this story, or at least bringing it to a decent stopping point, it's just, you know… I have homework.

So… Naraku/Onigumo is still a guy in this story. You may recall Tsuta (who was previously named Momiji in this story, but I changed it in June 2009… feels so long ago…) is male. Yep.

I think this is a decent place to leave off for the indefinite period until Chapter 18 is finished.

Sorry for my random meta comments within the actual story. And sorry for my long author's notes. Like I said in a previous chapter, I leave them at the end so you can skip them if you want. I just can't help writing long ones sometimes. *shrug*


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